Resident Evil: The Outbreak Chronicles
by scmower
Summary: Novelisation of files 1 and 2. As the T-Virus spreads through it, Raccoon City becomes hell on Earth. Chronicles the start of the outbreak through to the final hours. Spans all scenarios and more.
1. Prologue

Author's note: I don't own Resident Evil, Capcom does.

**Resident Evil: The Outbreak Chronicles**

**Chapter one: Accidents**

Water dripped from the pipes of the sewers underneath the streets of Raccoon City. A small waterfall could be seen beyond grating. The rat licked at the moisture which dripped forming small puddles on the ground. Moving along its fur was dripped on as well. But it was little importance to the rodent. The sound of dripping was something it was used to, something that relaxed it, gave it a feeling of normality. This was the rat's home. But there was another sound too, something it had not heard before.

A succession of loud bangs erupted from further down the sewer. Intrigued by what new sound was invading its home, the rat ran forward to find the noise. It passed out of the tight space it was in and up onto a pipe reaching up to the ceiling. The loud bangs were even louder now and there other noises. Shouts of men. The rat was used to the sound of people so it did not surprise it.

Lights also started appearing, lights different to those the rat was used to seeing from above. These were closer and short. There was another noise too, a tinkling noise. The rat looked and saw small objects fall through the grating above it. The rat had seen these objects before but never this far into its home. It looked up only to be greeted by a flash of white light. The light quickly dissipated and the rat looked once again.

Through the grating a man could be seen, crawling backwards angling a strange object into the air. Light erupted from the object as sound followed a second later. More small objects could be seen falling through the grating towards the rat. Suddenly something descended on the man cutting right through his chest.

The long spiked arm retracted back as the man lurched his torso upwards, the object falling from his hands. It landed on the floor, light still coming from it. More noises could be heard from further ahead accompanied by more flashes on light. Curious, the rat moved on, looking for the source of the noise that had invaded its home.

The rat moved out of the grating and up a series of pipes. The sounds were now a lot louder to the rodent's ears. Looking down from the pipe it saw two more men backing away with similar objects in their hands. Light and the same sounds coming from each of them. Suddenly a third man was thrown forward to land in front of the two men, rolling around in agony on his stomach as something else stepped out. Something the rat had never seen before.

At this the rat retreated and ran back into the grating system. The unfamiliar was a fear to the rat, and this unfamiliar creature was also dangerous.

The sounds died down as the rat scurried around the grating system. A last burst of sound was heard accompanied by light. Light that lit up the shadow of a monster that froze the rat to bone. Then it was gone, and a high pitched sound different to that of the guns was heard. A scream, the rat had heard those before.

The rat emerged out of the grating system a few seconds later; the smell of flesh filled its nostrils. But something else did as well, a liquid of some kind, but unfamiliar to the rat. Others had already gathered and had begun feeding on the liquid. The rat however continued, and climbed atop of one of the men. His chest still rose and fell as he tried to raise his head despite having severe holes in his chest.

Another rat climbed atop of his head and began biting into his face. Others came and a feast began as the man died. The rats continued, little knowing that they were filling themselves with something that would fill them with only one purpose in a very short time; to feed. Something that would destroy Raccoon City.


	2. Selective Members

**Chapter Two: Selective Members **

Guns fired all around him, but that didn't bother Kevin Ryman one bit. It was a part of life for him; it was just as simple as waking up in the morning. He had adjusted to it; it was just another day to day thing. He reached for another clip and took careful aim at the target ahead and fired. The bullet scored a perfect hit in the centre of the target's head as Kevin stepped back to admire his work.

Around him the sound of gunfire came back. He had learned to drown out the sound of fire from other people, especially when they were in the firing range. He was the best shot in the entire Raccoon Police department, after Chris Redfield that was. He was always coming second to Redfield in the marksman contests.

Next to him stood Elliot Wells, looking over at Kevin's target which now had a series of holes around the head.

"Nice Ryman." He complimented.

"Thanks." Kevin said as he raised his handgun again preparing for the next shot.

"So did you get a reply from Irons about the S.T.A.R.S. job yet?" Elliot asked.

His answer came as Kevin's shot missed the target entirely, in fact not even reaching it and hit the wall instead, taking out a light that was situated on the wall.

"Shit that bad huh?" Elliot said.

"Yeah." Kevin said in reply as he lowered his gun.

"Well hey it is Irons; he hates everyone who doesn't kiss his ass." Elliot said.

"Iron's didn't grade me on it this time." Kevin said back. "It was Marvin."

"Oh." Elliot said solemnly. Marvin wasn't one to be harsh to anyone; the guy was a good cop. One of the best men on the force, he was fair. So that meant it could probably be a fault on Kevin's side, but he still thought otherwise. "Do you think it might have something to do with everything that's with S.T.A.R.S. recently?"

"I'd say so." Kevin said. "With all the shit that's been going down they're probably not desperate to recruit anyone into it anyway." He turned away from his range and yelled back at the counter. "Yo, we need some maintenance over here!"

Jake, standing behind the counter and bullet proof glass snickered back. "Kevin Ryman missing a shot, what is the world coming to?"

"Yeah shut up!" Kevin said turning back to Elliot. "I don't know, I mean, it's just not like Redfield and Valentine and the others to touch stuff like that. They're not the drug touching type. I mean we all saw them every day."

"Everyone saw Valentine man." Elliot said back.

"Well yeah with an ass like that who couldn't?" Kevin joked back and Elliot laughed. "Do you think they would touch stuff like that, blow up a mansion and half of their team in it? It doesn't feel right."

"Yeah," Elliot said, "It may just be Irons making up bullshit. You saw the way he hated Redfield and Wesker, mostly because he kept telling Irons who was in charge of S.T.A.R.S. I swear that guy has had some major pineapple stuck up his ass recently. He's been snapping at anyone who so much as breathes wrong."

"Yeah, Irons probably just doesn't want anyone in S.T.A.R.S. right now." Kevin said, more to reassure himself than anything.

"Maybe," Elliot said, "Or maybe they don't take alcoholics into that force." He said with a grin.

"Shame," Kevin said, "They don't know what they're missing."

"Or you could just quit drinking as much as you do." Elliot said with a more serious tone.

"Nah," Kevin said back, "I'm not gonna be doing that."

Elliot laughed slightly at Kevin. "How many times have you been late these past few weeks, seven times?"

"Hey, I can't help it if my timing sucks." Kevin said grinning like a cocky kid.

"Well hey man, I'm just saying maybe you should clean up your act. No offence." Elliot said, "But this is the second time you've failed to get into S.T.A.R.S, and it wasn't Irons; it was Marvin. He isn't the kind to go and dismiss you off hand. Something must be up."

"Yeah, maybe." Kevin said and glanced at his watch. He was slightly glad to see it was nine AM, really so that he could get out of that awkward conversation. "Hey we better go, our shifts are starting."

"Yeah," Elliot said sighing as he walked away with Kevin. Behind them the maintenance guys got to work on the shot light.

As he walked Kevin couldn't help thinking about what Elliot was saying; maybe Marvin did fail him because of his attitude. But that was just the way he was, if they didn't like it, shit on them. It was probably just that S.T.A.R.S was basically going down the can. That was why so many new recruits were called in. He looked over as he walked with Elliot and saw one of the new recruits. Harry Dawson. Perhaps the most pathetic police officer Kevin had ever seen. He had only got the job because he was related to Irons. No one had questioned it because, basically, Irons was a walking bomb ready to explode on the first unlucky bastard that pissed him off.

Kevin felt almost sorry for Harry as he watched him. He was the worst shot he had ever seen and shot fired from around him made him jump. He could see the paranoid stress on the guys face and the sweat running down his face, and the side of his shirt. If anything the guy was worse than Brad Vickers. Along with a really bad haircut that he tried to hide with his hat and glasses that just sealed his nerdy image; he did not look ready to come out of the academy never mind a firing range.

Elliot was silent as he and Kevin were walking back to the R.P.D. The firing range was located in a building just outside. Kevin hated the silence that had come upon them both and decided to speak up. "Ah to hell with it." His cocky grin spread back onto his face, "Even if they don't want me, it's not the end of the freaking world." His grin spread even wider, "And hey, I think you guys need a shot like me on the force, especially now that Redfield's out of action."

"Yeah," Elliot said laughing, "Don't you have that protest gig today?"

"Yup," Kevin said as they walked up the steps to the main doors. "There's gonna be a bunch of people outside that new Umbrella facility protesting about Global Warming and that kinda stuff and how Umbrella are doing shit to help stop it." Kevin himself didn't really care for the matter, if the planet was going to shit then the planet was going to shit. There wasn't much they could do to stop it; they just had to prepare to deal with it. Kevin didn't like to dwell on the past, on mistakes people had made, that he had made. He liked to focus on the now, and deal with things rather than just blame others

"Well good luck," Elliot said opening the door to the expansive Raccoon Police Department Main hall. People moved around the hall doing their everyday jobs, it was just a normal day; but a day that would change the lives of all of its citizens.

Elliot opened his mouth to say something else but was interrupted as the live volcano that was Chief Brian Irons exploded as Kevin came into his sight. "Ryman!" He yelled as he stomped over.

"Ah shit." Kevin said quietly and looked at Elliot. "You better go, man; less Irons try to bite your balls off."

"Yeah." Elliot said as eh quickly departed. Even Irons could put the fear of death into a guy as tough as Elliot. No one liked the fat bastard, but no one spoke out for fear of losing their job. Irons had quickly turned the police station into his own little personal empire that he ruled with an iron fist ever since the incident with S.T.A.R.S. a few months ago. His ego had grown incredibly due to the support Umbrella had given him and they were even supporting his campaign for mayor.

"Ryman what the hell time do you call this?" Irons said as he reached Ryman.

"Uhh…" Kevin said as he looked at his watch. "I call it three minutes past nine sir."

"Don't get smart with me you son of a bitch!" Irons roared at him, his brush of a moustache sticking out like a rock on his face. "Roll call was at nine AM sharp; don't keep pushing your luck Ryman. I could fire you any time I wanted."

_I'd like to see you try you fat son of a bitch, _Kevin thought. Irons may have the power over the others, but Kevin had a secret weapon against him. A few days ago Irons had been pissed off with Kevin as usual and had forced him to do the night shift at the station. Kevin wouldn't have minded so much if he hadn't been doing the day shift right before it though.

As it turned out, Kevin had discovered, while strolling around the detective's room, that Irons had been hiding some liquor in there under the desk in his office. Kevin had beamed with pride upon finding it, Irons had always smelt of booze and he had always thought he kept it in his private office on the second floor. But Irons had screwed up, and Kevin kept quiet, waiting for a perfect moment to use it against him.

"Really, chief?" Kevin said, with a slight smile on his face. He was going to enjoy this.

"That's right Ryman." He said, his face growing red at he thought of Ryman questioning his authority like this. "You take one step out of line and I'll have you cleaning toilets at the local high school!"

"Chief, you're a wonderful human being." Kevin mocked.

"That's it Ryman!" Irons spat, this he had gone too far and they both knew it. Irons would fire him now. "You're--"

"Hey chief," Kevin cut in, making Irons go even redder. "You remember when you made me work the night shift a few days ago? Well as I just strolling through the detective's room, guess what I just happened to find behind your computer?" Kevin's smile grew even wider.

Irons' face actually grew even redder upon hearing this. Kevin thought he was actually going to explode right in front of him. Irons looked over his shoulder nervously checking if anyone had heard. Everyone was just getting on with their work; Irons snapping at someone had become a daily occurrence.

Irons was trapped and he knew it. If he fired Kevin he could easily just spill the beans on his drinking at work. Kevin was sure the Raccoon Press would be happy to get their hands on such juicy info of candidate to be mayor. After the work they did on the city zoo, they could practically destroy Irons' career. They both knew it.

"Just get back to work Ryman." Irons growled and stalked off into the waiting room.

"Yes chief." Kevin said with a smirk as Irons slammed the door behind him. "Get a shave." Kevin said under his breath as he made his way to the East Wing. He opened the door and opened the one directly ahead of it into the detective's room.

The room was busy as always. Marvin Branagh was at the back of the room looking for something on the shelf. Kevin made his way over to his desk. He sat down at his cluttered desk and opened the drawer. He kept a lot of stuff in that drawer, plus stuff he had never got round to removing; an old parking ticket, a letter saying he still hadn't returned a DVD to the store in a few months and he now owed more than twenty dollars. And situated at the bottom was his beloved gun, the Magnum Revolver. He always had a thing for guns with good firepower, and the Magnum was ranked there with the giants. It wasn't exactly a standard police firearm, but he was allowed to keep it in the station. Kevin was however allowed to take a .45 Auto out on the field when he worked, and it had fast become his favourite gun. It gave just the right kick that left a certain satisfaction when he got a good shot on a target. When Kevin got a good shot with it everything felt good, the kick of the gun, everything. Course he wasn't a gun toting psychopath out for some killings. But he had been raised around guns as a kid out on the ranch, so it just came naturally to him.

"Kevin." A voice interrupted his thoughts. It was Marvin, most likely coming to talk to him about his incident last week at J's. Marvin was the kind of guy who didn't like to level himself above the employees like Irons, and he called Kevin by his first name and not his second. It was just the way Marvin was, everyone was his friend. Marvin pulled up a seat beside him as he looked at him concerned. "Did you attend those AA meetings I recommended for you?"

"Look, man; I don't need to do stuff like that." Kevin said to him. "I'm just a guy out to enjoy himself while he can. That's all. I don't need to go into all that 'Hi, my name is Kevin and I have a problem' crap."

"Your stunt at J's bar last week says otherwise." Marvin said with a sceptical look on his face.

The incident he was referring to of course happened only a few days ago when Kevin had got more than a little drunk and had ended in a brawl with a younger guy at the bar. Kevin had been flirting with a woman who just turned out to be the younger guy's girlfriend. Suffice to say the man wasn't too happy about Kevin's persistence on his girlfriend, and Kevin, hammered out of his head on alcohol, had instigated a small fight between the two that Will himself had barely managed to break up. The whole incident had earned Kevin a place on the black list of the bar, and the man had complained to the police straight up about the incident.

"Look that wasn't my fault." Kevin said to Marvin, "That guy was being a total ass about the whole thing."

"Look Kevin," Marvin said. "You need to stop this." He sighed, "Drunken police officers send a bad message to all citizens about police everywhere. You know I like you man, but this can't go on. If it does, you could lose your job. I don't want to have to lay off a good man like you."

"Hey man, it won't happen again okay." Kevin said trying to reassure Marvin. "That was just a blip, a one off."

"I hope so Kev," Marvin said. "I worry about you sometimes man, you take everything so lightly."

"Well, what I can't exactly scream 'Repent the end is nigh' every time we drag some crack head in can I?" Kevin said smiling slightly.

Marvin chuckled slightly as well. "Well no, but just try to act more serious. It's like you just take everything for granted. No offence."

"Yeah, well I just dwell on everything." Kevin said leaning back on his chair. "I just want to live my life, you know. I don't want to be tied down and depressed by everything. That's just stupid in my opinion."

"Alright, Kev." Marvin said, "Just be careful in the future okay man."

"Yeah," Kevin said, "Don't worry man. It won't happen again."

"Alright." Marvin said and stood up from the chair and walked away to his desk. Kevin sat there thinking to himself. Could he really lose his job through all this? He had never thought of it like that before, but the reality seemed that much closer now. Somewhere in the back of his mind he had always known he was treading on thin ice. Now that ice seemed ready to crack and send Kevin falling into the icy depths.

He had always been the carefree kind of guy, even when he was a kid nothing seemed to make him despair. He was an optimist. Even when he was evicted from his apartment when he was twenty-two he hadn't given up when most people might. Even with nowhere to go he hadn't given up, and now here he was working with the police department of Raccoon City.

He glanced back at his watch seeing it was now ten minutes past nine. He got up from his desk and made his way to the corridor at the back of the room that would lead to the locker room. His team were going to be at the Umbrella facility at ten for the unveiling at ten thirty. A lot of protestors were predicted to be there. Things probably wouldn't get violent, but they were to be there anyway. Things could go always go unexpected at protests. All it takes is one nut job to get a little rowdy and throw something and the whole thing escalates into a full scale riot.

As he passed by the shelf at the back he passed two cops, Arthur and Dorian as they came into the room, who were discussing the day's big football game. "Hey Kev," Arthur said, "Who do you think will win today?"

"My money's on the Sharks, guys," Kevin said in response, flashing a smile.

"Yeah," Dorian said, "I got fifty bucks riding on them to win."

"Better hope they do," Arthur said grinning, "Or Dorian might just rip his own moustache off if he loses fifty bucks."

"Not a chance," Dorian said laughing, "The Sharks never lose." That statement was actually true; the Raccoon Sharks hadn't lost a single game since the season began.

"Yeah well I get time off to see it," Arthur said, "I'll tell ya the outcome when I come back." He grinned, "But they better win. Dorian without a moustache is like Michael Jackson without plastic surgery."

"Ha, ha; very funny," Dorian said and Kevin just laughed as he continued through the open door. He began walking down the lushly decorated hallway with the windows on either side. Many were open as he passed.

As he passed by them he began to feel strange, but he couldn't quite place why. Things seemed normal, yet something was out of place. He stopped at one of the open windows and leaned on the sill as he looked out. Office buildings could be seen about a hundred yards away past the path that ran outside. He stood there, trying to figure out what was missing. Traffic could still be heard in the distance, along with the voce of people passing. But there was something else, something he couldn't figure out.

He began to think about everyday he walked down this hallway. Remembering what happened each day. Cars, people, birds- that was it! The birds, they were always singing in the morning. Yet this morning he couldn't hear them. There were no birds. What happened to them, why weren't they singing? Somehow, this unnerved him. It gave him the feeling that something was wrong. This slight break in routine was having an adverse affect.

Kevin shook his head. It was ridiculous, just because the damn birds weren't singing it didn't mean that the apocalypse was coming. It was strange, how the little things affected people. The slightest change could have a chain reaction. One thing changes, everything changes. The butterfly effect, it was weird that it was actually true. Kevin actually felt that something was wrong just because one thing was different that day.

He continued on along the hallway until he reached the stairs leading down and the locker room next to it. He opened the door and walked in. No one was present in the small room compared to the rest of the station. He walked past the untidy desk and to the row of lockers. His one was the second one from the right.

He opened it. On the top shelf lay some of his more personal items, his cowboy hat, a hair dying formula he was waiting for the right time to use, a pack of Umbrella brand cigarettes, and the joker key that could be used for the kennels. Underneath them was a spare R.P.D uniform and some of his riot gear.

He picked up the spare gear and started to put it on. As he did he met with his reflection in the mirror. He stood there for a moment, looking at the man he saw before him.

A thirty something man with dark brown hair and stubble on his face indicating where a beard was growing looked back at him. Kevin looked at the reflection, he was in his early thirties, not bad looking, and maybe it was time to settle down, stop carrying around. Maybe it was time to take things more seriously. Maybe.

He finished that line of thought as he closed the locker door on the reflection of himself. It was the face of a man who was heading for trouble, and the thoughts came back to him. What Marvin had said, what Elliot had said; perhaps they were right. Maybe it was time to clean up his act and sober up. He would definitely need to shave that night.

He finished his ponderings with a line he thought would be the best course of action for him to take.

"I need a vacation."

XXX

George Hamilton had always been a busy man, and it had always put pressure on his marriage. And now as he was prepared to go back to the hospital, he saw the full extent of the damage his job had put on his marriage.

He had never seen Catherine this angry, and it shocked him. He was shocked more than anything, he hadn't been expecting it. "Why are you being like this?" He asked her.

"Don't you know?" she said back to him, "Haven't you noticed it building up for the past four years!"

"What do you mean?" George asked back confused.

"You're always choosing your work over me!" Catherine yelled back, tears forming in her eyes, "It's always been your work before me. Before your wife!"

"That's ridiculous!" George stated back.

"Is it George?" Catharine said, "It's always been your work. Never me. If something comes up at work you go running, just like you are now. Remember our last anniversary? You promised to take me out to the best restaurant in town, but something came up at work and we ended up eating at Grill 13 instead!"

George was still taken back by everything she was saying. She had given him no warning of this; not any that he had seen. However, recently Catherine had been a walking time bomb waiting to explode, every time George neglected her for work another second ticked down. Now the counter was at zero.

Anyone would have noticed the frustration and anger building in her; everyone. Everyone except George. He was so wrapped up in his work he had blind to his own wife. The Raccoon City Hospital was the only hospital in the whole city, and he was the best surgeon there. He was needed there, but he was needed even more at home.

"I have to go," George said, looking for an excuse more than anything. "I'm late as it is."

"It's Sunday George," Catherine said, tears now rolling down her face, "Sunday is supposed to be your day off!"

"Look, I have to go." George pleaded back, "A guy has just come in. He's been injured pretty badly from a car accident. The person with him says someone just lurched in front of the car."

"Tell them to find someone else." Catherine said.

"It's everyone else's day off," George retorted.

"It's supposed to be your day off too!" Catherine shouted, "You can't just run back to them every time someone gets hurt!"

"It's my job," George said matter-of-factly.

"It's always your job," Catherine said, desperation creeping into her voice. "It's always that fucking hospital! It's never me!"

"I'm sorry," George simply said. There was nothing else he could say. He had to go, and that was that. Being the best surgeon for the only hospital in town was a demanding job. He opened the door of their expansive, lush home and closed the door, leaving behind a devastated Catherine.

He walked down gravel on their long driveway to his car and unlocked it via the button on his keys. His house was located in the uptown area of Raccoon City, where the… better off people lived. George didn't consider himself superior to other people in the city, but with his huge salary he could easily afford his house, and the expensive things he bought Catherine.

Expensive things. That was where he had gone wrong; he had taken her for granted all these years. Buying her jewellery and other things only to keep her happy, but she hadn't married him for expensive things, she had loved him, and it seemed he was just trying to buy that. Giving her things to keep her happy, or quiet; how could he have been so blind?

"Hi, George," a familiar voice said to him. He turned to see his neighbour Wendy. "I didn't know you worked on Sundays?" She said as she stopped clipping her hedge. Wendy had lived in the street before George and Catherine had even moved in and, at over sixty, she was always a friendly person, always smiling.

"There was a car accident this morning." George said, smiling back. "I have to go in since no one else is available."

"Oh, you're so dedicated to that job," Wendy said, "You're wife must be very patient to tolerate it all the time."

At this George's smile faded. It was exactly that dedication that was pushing her away. "Yeah," George said, "She's great." With that he got into his car and started the engine as Wendy went back to trimming her hedge.

George started to think as he put the car into reverse. How had it come to this? Their marriage had started so great. It had gone just as any marriage would go. Then he got his promotion at work. That was had started it all George thought as he drove down the street.

After he got his promotion his work had gotten more demanding. It had put strain on his marriage, strain he hadn't even noticed before, until now. Everyone who met him or even saw him could tell he was married to his job. And that created problems where his wife was concerned.

He drove around the corner and joined the rest of the traffic on the free way overpass leading into the heart of the city. His marriage was on the rocks, he saw that now. And he had to save it, after he saved the man. After he saved the man…It was at that moment that it hit him. She was right; he had chosen his work after her. He was doing it again. He was choosing a critically ill man over his own wife.

_I should turn the car around, _he thought. If he was any sort of dedicated husband he would be at home right now with his wife, telling her how sorry he was and how he was going to fix things. But could he really choose his wife over a dying man, a man who would die if it wasn't for him? Could he really choose her over saving a human life?

His job was calling for him; he had to go to the hospital. He had to save the man. He would make it up to Catherine later. He would buy her flowers, and light a candlelight dinner later and make up for what he had done to her. He would make it up to her.

He would never get the chance.

A/N: And that's the first chapter up. I've never actually been to a police firing range so sorry if the description of the RPD range isn't all that great. Other than I hope you enjoy and please review, this is my first proper fic so go easy on the flames.


	3. Waitresses and Journalists

**Chapter Three: Waitresses and Journalists**

Cindy Lennox bowed her head in unison with the rest of the church. The chorus of Amen's that rose up from the congregation filled her with peace. With al the bad happening in the world, it comforted her to know that there were some places where peace still reigned.

As the chorus ended people immediately stood up. Cindy stayed seated. She didn't like the idea of leaping immediately after the service; it was as if they saw church as a chore. She enjoyed it; she looked forward all week to hour she would be spending here with other Christians looking up at the pastor and the beautiful designs on the ceiling. She always loved the angel pictures up there, and the carvings of lions atop the parapet. What was better was that they you had to look up to see them, and raise your eyes to the heavens, literally.

She looked and saw that there were only a few others still sitting, most of them being the elders, and decided it was time to leave. She joined the crowd waiting at the door and looked up ahead. Pastor Jim was up ahead shaking hands with those who were leaving as was his new assistant, Mr. McGuire, she couldn't remember his first name. Some members passed by if he was taking too long talking to a member, they probably had things to do.

She was glad it was a Sunday, other than the fact she didn't have work today, she liked her work, but she also enjoyed Sundays. She enjoyed the time to relax, God had made the day for her to relax, and she was going to.

"Hello Cindy." Pastor Jim said in his usual cheerful way, shaking her hand.

"Hello father." She said back smiling,

"Please," he said back, "call me Jim."

"Okay, Jim." She said.

""How's your new job at J's going?" he asked.

"Its going really well Jim." She said, the members behind her had already moved on, probably sensing they may have to wait for a while. Cindy considered it like an honour to talk to the minister, and his assistant.

"Good," Jim said, "I heard some good things about you from Will. You're fast becoming their favourite waitress."

"Really?" Cindy said, blushing slightly.

"Absolutely," Jim said, "I hear you have a smile that lights up the whole room."

"Thank you." Cindy said.

"You're welcome Cindy," Jim said, "Take care of yourself."

"You too." She said as she moved away. She liked Pastor Jim; he was such a nice man. Some might say too friendly, but that was just part of his job. Mr. McGuire smiled at her as she left. She smiled back. She still couldn't remember his first name. Was it Douglass? No…it was something different, one she hadn't heard until he had arrived. _Oh well, _she thought as she turned the corner into the street,_ I'll remember it later._

She decided to turn on her cell phone; she always had it off during church as she thought it would be disrespectful. A siren wailed behind her as she pulled it out of her pocket. An ambulance raced past her, followed by another, and then by a police car. There was always something going on in this city, but she supposed that happened everywhere. Still, it was a shame, someone must have been hurt in some way, but that was always happening too.

She was surprised to see that she had five missed calls when the phone lit up. She was about to check the caller ID's when it started ringing again. It was Will, the bartender from J's bar, and her superior. She had started working there about two weeks ago, the pay was decent, but sometimes the customers could get unruly, like that cop who had started that fight the other day. He had been more animal than man that night.

"Hello?" She said as she pressed receive and held the phone to her ear.

"Cindy its Will." He said, only saying what she already knew. "I've been trying to call you all morning, where were you?" He interrupted her before she could respond. "It doesn't matter anyway. Look, can you make it into work today?"

"But Will today's my day off." She protested.

"I know," he said back sympathetically. "But we've been unable to reach Rob this morning, he just won't pick up. I've called some of the other guys but they said they weren't feeling well. There must be something going around, anyway, I didn't want to call you today but you're my last hope. Can you make it in today?"

"When?" She asked. This would mean sacrificing her Sunday but someone had to serve the customers, and Will couldn't handle it on his own. He wasn't great in a crisis. She wondered what was wrong with the others.

"As soon as you can." Will said down the phone. "I'll pay you for overtime as well. I'm sorry about this but there's no one left."

"Okay I'll make it in." She said, "Just let me go back to my apartment and get my uniform. I'll try and be there in about twenty minutes."

"Thanks Cindy." Will said on the other side of the phone, he sounded a lot more relieved now. "You're a life saver." That comment made Cindy smile. "Alright thanks, I gotta go Cindy. See you later." She heard the line disconnect from other end as she lowered the phone. He must have been busy. There must have been some sort of cold going around for everyone else to be ill.

There was a wail from behind her as another ambulance raced past her. There must have been a bad accident. Her mind was focused on that and the illness striking her co-workers that she didn't hear the shuffling of feet coming from the alleyway she was approaching. She didn't see him lurch out of the corner of her eye until it was too late.

The force of the man as he struck into her sent her flying straight to the ground. Cindy screamed and struggled free easily as the man recoiled and struggled to stand up. Cindy stood up to face him.

"Oh god I'm sorry!" he said as he looked at her apologetically. He looked like he was dead; he was pale, so pale she could see his veins under his neck. Dark circles had formed under his eyes and the sweat was running down his face. He had short brown hair and a red jacket. He held his left arm with his right, the sleeve had been torn and blood was just distinguishable under the red fabrics. "I'm sorry I didn't see you."

"It's okay." Cindy said, feeling slightly unnerved by the man. "What happened to your arm?"

The man looked down at his arm. "A rat attacked me as I was putting out my garbage last night. I didn't think anything of it, but now I think I'm coming down with a fever. I should have got it checked out last night. I'm on my way to the hospital now."

"Uh, okay." Cindy said as the man went on with another apology. She could help him, she had medical training but there was something about him that made her nervous. She couldn't place it, but he just freaked her out. It was like he was a bad omen, but she didn't know why. She just knew she didn't want to run into him again. Little did she know she would again that very night.

She was now glad she had to work. She was glad for the distraction, for anything to take her mind of that man. Work would help her to forget him, everyone was friendly there, except for Jack, but he rarely left his office. Perhaps Jack was ill too.

She crossed the road to another street and looked over her shoulder, in case the man was following her. Which of course he wasn't, she couldn't even see him now, but she was still expecting him to lurch out again at her from a shadow. _That's just silly paranoia_ she thought to herself as she continued down the street.

She decided just to go straight to J's; she had planned to go back to her apartment and change, but she had a spare outfit in her locker at J's. As long as no one walked she would be fine, and with the amount of absentees, it didn't look likely anyone would come in. She would feel safer at work anyway, she couldn't describe it, but she had been left with bad vibes from that man. She looked over her shoulder again, and again all she could see were the masses of faces behind her.

She shook her head again, mentally kicking herself for being silly. Still, she would feel safer once she reached J's.

XXX

Alyssa Ashcroft was having a bad day, and it was only 11:30 in the morning. "No goddamn way!" she yelled, "No way are you sending me on some little pissy road accident, not after the job I did on the zoo! You can't send me to some road traffic accident after I did that!"

"Alyssa," Jonathan said sitting back in his chair looking up at Alyssa, "it's been a slow day. Okay, nothing else is happening out there, I need you on this."

"Send someone else." Alyssa snapped back.

"There is no one else." Jonathan said matter-of-factly as he leaned forward in his chair again. "Everyone else is off sick. Aileen is gathering info on a murder that happened downtown, and Ben is working on a convenience store robbery."

Although the thought of Ben Bertolucci working on a convenience store robbery did make her smirk inside a little, her fury wasn't calmed in the slightest. "I am not working on a car crash. That's too common, I need something interesting!"

"Common?" Jonathan said almost laughing, "Any other day it would be common, but today its more than common. Haven't you heard the news? There have been about five different crashes this morning all in different parts of the city. That's the most I've ever heard of in a morning, in this city at least. And like I said, there's nothing else."

Alyssa stood silent, the fury still burning in her eyes. The fan on the ceiling continued its slow rotation, making the only noise in the room, as if cool the fury coming from Alyssa as it would cool the temperature in the room. But there was no cooling Alyssa's rage, not when she was set on something. She wouldn't give up until she got what she wanted.

"I told you before, there's no other job right now." Jonathan said, his voice carrying a trace of apology. Alyssa glared at him, and Jonathan saw she was starting to admit defeat. He couldn't help but smile slightly.

"What the hell are you smirking at?" Alyssa snapped. She wasn't one to admit defeat, and usually anyone she didn't get her way with often became afraid of her. Alyssa wasn't the kind of woman you wanted to run into in a dark alley, especially when she was pissed at you. And right now in her red jacket and trousers, she looked like a demon straight out of hell. A strand of her short blonde hair fell in front of her eye, but Alyssa didn't dare brush it away, as if any sort of movement right now would be a sign of weakness.

Jonathan didn't get the chance to reply as there was a knock at the office door. _Saved by the knock_ he thought. "Come in."

Alyssa let her glare from Jonathan drop as she looked to see who entered. It was Emily, the new secretary, the pretty, ditzy blonde still in her early twenties and a skirt that revealed more than usual. She often drew stares from the other men in the office, and comments about how she beautiful she looked. She would always blush and say thank you, but she always liked the compliments, and it made Alyssa sick to her stomach. There was only one reason why she had been hired, and it wasn't for her brains, if she even had any.

"Excuse me Mr Edwards," she said coming in, "but I just heard about a riot that's started outside that new Umbrella plant." She handed a sheet containing the details to Jonathan.

"Thanks Emily," said Jonathan smiling, probably at the extra short skirt that she was attired in this morning. "I'll take a look at that right away."

"Okay Mr. Edwards." Emily said with her usual smile and left the room. Jonathan's gaze followed her as she closed the door and continued into the hall.

"I'll take it." Alyssa said placing her hands on the desk, and making Jonathan jump out of his distraction.

"What?" He asked, looking back at where Emily had gone.

"I said I'll take the riot." Alyssa said. "Hey? Asshole?"

"Hey!" Jonathan snapped back suddenly coming back to Earth. "I could have you fired for that!"

"Yeah," said Alyssa with a smirk, "but could you find a better replacement?" Jonathan grunted as he sat back in his desk. Alyssa continued, "So send me to that riot. I'm sure you'd want more coverage on that than a car crash huh?"

"Alright fine." Jonathan said. He looked at the document, "You know where the new plant is right?"

"Of course." Said Alyssa.

"Alright, get down there and get what you can on it." Jonathan said.

"On it." Alyssa said, with a slight taste of triumph in her voice as she turned and walked from the office. Jonathan seemed to sigh with relief as she left.

The second floor of Raccoon Press was strangely silent today, even for a Sunday. The Raccoon Press was the best selling news paper in town, so they had recently upgraded to a seven day week newspaper, and that meant Alyssa had to work Sundays. She didn't mind it much, it meant more scoops.

She walked into the room where her desk was, Charlie's was behind her, but he was ill today, and Ben (I'm an asshole) Bertolluci's was behind that. Each desk was customised with its owner's personal touches.

Ben's had a little trophy on it; an award for journalism that he had won three years ago and still couldn't get over. Then again it was the only award he had ever won; Alyssa guessed everyone had to be proud of something, even if they couldn't do any better. His desk was also cluttered with some files and documents he had been looking over for the past two weeks, sure he had a major scoop at least that was what he told everyone, though he wouldn't let anyone read it. All he was willing to say about was that it had something to do with Iron's and that it was ticket to Journalism stardom.

Alyssa thought the guy was too much of a try hard, if not delusional. He had even asked her out on a date a few times before As if working with the freak wasn't bad enough; she couldn't endure the possibility of going on a date with that ego-tistical jerk. He had even asked Emily out on a date once and she had turned him down too, which Alyssa had smirked at. He couldn't get a date with the resident slut, now that was low.

Charlie's desk was less cluttered than Ben's, and had pictures of his wife and two sons. Some pictures were of them at home, and some were from holidays. In all of them they were happy, your typical, happy family. Charlie was smiling through his glasses, his wife Carrie smiling as she hugged her two sons with Charlie, they were always happy. For some reason it always Alyssa smile a little when she saw those pictures, pictures a loving family out being a family. It was as if the happiness of those pictures was transferred into her as well.

Charlie himself was always cheerful, one of the few people in the office that she actually got along with, much to Ben's dislike. Neither of them cared though, neither of them liked Ben much anyway; he was like the resident jerk. Charlie was almost the complete opposite, always happy to lend a hand to any paper she was writing, which was rare in Alyssa's career. He was an all round generally nice guy. Ben had once tried to hint that Charlie's intentions were less than honourable one day at the water cooler, which had earned a swift "piss off" from Alyssa.

Her own desk was the least cluttered. Her pens were in their holders, and in the middle sat her laptop and her award for journalism she had won earlier that year after her scoop on the zoo. That story had been a gold mine. The misuse of City Zoo funds to screw over little kiddies, it had been too good to turn down.

The chairman of the City Zoo had been sneaking funds off and instead of giving the zoo the flower it was meant to have to educate children; he had brought in an artificial one and had bribed the botanists not to tell anyone. But someone in the zoo had found out and, being a friend of Alyssa's, he had helped her get the story. And she'd been rewarded for it. Just one month ago she her efforts had been recognised by the City Council who had awarded her a certificate for Journalism to benefit the city.

The chairman had been removed and the real plant had been brought in, also, the botanist had been fired too. So, in a sense she had been doing the city a favour; the city had been alerted to a scam, the kiddies got to be educated by the real plant, the bad guys were out of a job and were currently fighting the legal action that was being taken against them, the anonymous tipster had been promoted in the zoo, but not named on his own choice, and Alyssa had been rewarded for her efforts. So it all worked out.

It had really pissed off Ben too, that someone two years younger than him was doing better when he was supposed to be in his "prime". Everyone else had been supported and it was what got her her break in the journalistic world. Now she was all over the big cases along with Ben and Charlie, although she kept beating them to the juicy ones.

Except for today, today the juiciest thing going around was a god damn riot by some environmental freaks. _Still, _she thought, _it's better than that car crash…and the convenience store robbery._

She reached over and picked up her grey laptop and a pen and notebook, in case she didn't get time to use the laptop. She had to admit, it was slightly unusual for a riot to erupt over something like Umbrella. It was almost like some kind of communist uprising, the peasants revolting against the Tsarist state because they didn't like the way they were handling things, but half of the people in this city wouldn't have jobs if it wasn't for Umbrella. Seriously what were they thinking, if they got rid of Umbrella the town would basically go bankrupt, and unemployment would reach an all time high, the direct opposite of the all time low unemployment was at right now thanks to Umbrella.

She walked out into the hall and started down the stairs to the reception, passing one of the other office rooms halfway down. The room was practically empty except for the two men sitting at their desks who Alyssa had never bothered to remember the names of.

At the bottom she walked out into the reception and saw Emily sitting at her desk, she saw her look up at her but never said anything. She had learned not to talk to Alyssa as every time she did all she got in reply was a grunt. Alyssa paid her no mind and opened the door out into the city street.

She was greeted by the usual noises, cars passing by; a police siren wailing in the distance, even a dog was barking somewhere. People passed by her as she walked along the building to the parking lot. The city was always busy, every day of the week. It never took a rest. Then again the economy never took a rest, except for Christmas.

Alyssa rounded the corner to the parking lot, where her red convertible lay. She pulled out the keys and hit the button on them to unlock the doors, and as she walked towards it she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head, and saw that it was a rat. A huge one, just standing there staring at her. Its body seemed bloated, it was bigger than any other rat she had ever seen, and its eyes carried a menacing glare. It made Alyssa feel uneasy.

"Go on!" She yelled at it, "Get out of here!" The rat just stood there staring at her. Its eyes creeped her out, it looked as though it was going to pounce at her any second. "I said go!" She said, louder and waving an arm at the rat in a shoo fashion. The rodent just stood there, continuing to stare at her.

It was really starting to creep Alyssa out now. Her hand moved behind her and grabbed the car door as she opened it, never daring to take her eyes of the rat in case it attacked her. It just continued to stare, in that menacing way. Alyssa opened the door just wide enough so that she could slip into the car and closed it firmly once she was inside, still not taking her eyes off the rodent that continued just to stare at her.

She started the engine and put the car in gear, taking her eyes off the rodent. And to her horror it moved forward towards the car. Alyssa gasped as she snapped her neck around to look at the rat that stopped in its tracks as she made eye contact with it again. Alyssa started to reverse out of the car park having no choice but to move her head around to the back, unable to see the rat in viewpoint, but she felt its eyes upon her the whole time.

She turned the car around to face the exit and looked in her side view mirror. The rat was right at the left hand side of the car, right next to the rear lights. It stopped again; did it see her in the mirror?

Alyssa didn't wait to find out. She put the car into first and drove out of the parking lot, feeling the set of eyes on her the whole time.

XXX

"Oh Cindy thank God you're here." Will said as Cindy walked in the door. He had been right, they were short staffed, the only other staff members there were Will and Andrew, the chef. A couple of customers were sitting around the bar, mostly eating lunch, but for the most of it, the bar wasn't that busy. But that didn't mean the place could be run by Will and Andrew alone. "Where's your uniform?" Will asked as he walked over to her.

"It was dirty." Cindy said, "I'm just going to put on the one in my locker." She really didn't want to tell him about her encounter with the sick man, he'd probably think she was over reacting. Maybe she was, but she couldn't shake the bad vibe she had gotten from him.

"Okay but try and be quick." Will said walking back to the bar, "I don't mean to rush you but things have been kinda hectic here with just the two of us." Will walked over to collect an empty plate from a customer as Andrew washed up in the sink behind the bar.

The idea to include meals was one Jack had come up with. Of course, they had no kitchen, so they had to add a cooker for the meantime for Andrew to cook with. They were going to shut down at the start of 1999 temporarily to have an extension added for a kitchen and more chefs. There were usually two chefs, but today it was only Andrew.

Behind her in the corner of the bar was the television, right now the lunchtime news was on and they were talking about a record number of accidents that morning. Sometimes Cindy wondered what the world was coming to. People should enjoy their live and not be reckless enough to have it taken away like that.

She opened the door at the back right corner of the bar and emerged out onto the stairs on her left. There was another turn at the top and she was on the second floor landing. Her feet thudded lightly on the wood flooring, they had been meaning to put a carpet down, but Jack's idea for a kitchen had put that on hold. The staff office was directly ahead before the staffroom on the left.

She turned left into the staff area. On her left was the locker room, to her right was the door leading to the attic, and ahead was the seating area with Will's office on the right along with Jack's. She wondered if Jack was in today, but doubted it. If Jack was in there wouldn't be three people manning the bar, Jack would have dragged in everyone who called in sick personally.

She opened the door the locker room, closing it behind her. There were rows of lockers on two walls and a table and chair in the middle. A few boxes were pilled up under the windows. Her own locker was on the left.

She opened it to reveal her spare waitress outfit hanging on a hanger. A herb case was at the bottom with a few medicinal herbs inside. Cindy knew how to mix herbs; it had been the one part of her medical training she had been able to take in fully. The rest had been too complicated.

There were a few items on a shelf at the top which consisted of some breath mints, a spare bobble for her hair and Mr. Raccoon medal. Mr. Raccoon was the Raccoon City mascot and even had books about him intended for children but Cindy loved them too. She found Mr. Raccoon to be insanely cute, and his books always had the cutest adventures in them.

She took out her spare waitress outfit and began to get changed. It consisted of a grey skirt with black tights, white shirt and grey waistcoat over that with her nametag.

As she buttoned up her waistcoat she looked out into the alley that the window overlooked. There was a single figure standing there looking away from the bar and out onto the street. From the build she could tell it was a man. He stood hunched over with his head hung low. He didn't move, he just stood there, arms swaying in the wind.

Cindy leaned towards the window to get a better look. He was wearing a green raincoat and blue jeans. She couldn't make out the colour of his hair; it was either brown or black.

She could hear a police siren in the distance getting closer. The man seemed to hear this as he raised his head to the noise and moved his head slightly left in the direction of the sound. The sound got a lot louder and the police car drove past the alley in front of the man.

He slowly turned his head after it was gone. He moved so slow Cindy wondered if he was mentally ill. He started moving, although it looked more like limping, and his hand brushed up against the brick of the alley. He started to stagger towards the road and disappeared in the direction of the car.

A shudder ran down Cindy's spine as she stood back from the window. What had been wrong with that man? Why had his reflexes been so slow? And why had he staggered?

Cindy realised she couldn't find any answers to that. She turned and walked back to the door ready to get on with her work. Today had been strange, but it was going to get a lot worse later.


	4. Deteriorating Conditions

**Chapter Four: Deteriorating Conditions**

"Remind me again," Kevin said looking at the scene unfolding in front of them, "How did this happen?"

"I…really don't know." Charlie replied, staring in disbelief at what lay in front of them. Their job, which had just been to keep some protestors at bay, had turned into a war. The cops were now struggling to keep the civilians at bay as they surged against them like an unbreaking sea. It was getting more aggressive by the minute, the riot cops had been called, but they hadn't arrived yet.

Kevin had never been in a riot before, but to be honest, a riot had never been to Raccoon before. Things had gone to shit pretty fast. At first it had been easy, protestors were just holding up signs, and yelling and doing all that usual stuff. Then, it had got nasty.

He still wasn't sure how it happened, but it had happened anyway. Someone in the crowd had screamed and then a fight had broken out. The fight seemed to spread like a virus throughout the crowd. Or more like a blaze, the only thing standing in its way was the wall of cops, and they were having a hard time holding them back. They were yelling, swearing, some were even pleading for their life. It wasn't like anything Kevin had ever seen before, silently, he was grateful he was behind the line of cops, but he knew he would be called forward any second.

"Jesus." Charlie remarked, looking into the sea of protestors in front of them. Somewhere in the crowd, a woman screamed. But it wasn't like the other screams that were emitting from the crowd, this was different, it sounded like she was in pain. "What the hell?" Charlie murdered, looking into the crowd.

"What the hell is going on?" Kevin said moving forward. She may be getting attacked by someone, or she might be getting crushed against the crowd. Another scream was heard, but it was one of shock, some other rose into the air too. "Something's wrong." Kevin said.

The woman screamed again, but it was different, it was a gurgled one. _Holy shit_ Kevin thought. This was getting out of hand, now people could be seriously hurt. It had gone too far, now someone was either getting crushed in the crowd, or some nut job had decided to use it to his advantage.

"Can you see her?" Kevin asked to Charlie.

"No." Charlie said, looking. "Where did it sound like it was coming from?"

"Somewhere in the middle." Kevin said.

"Where the hell are the riot cops?" Charlie asked, anxiety showing in his face. Another scream was heard, but it was one of shock. There were others after it, women and men alike. Something was seriously starting to go wrong.

"Oh my god!" A man screamed from somewhere. Kevin moved forward, right behind the wall of cops. He couldn't see anything. Some people at the front were turning their heads to look behind as well. Suddenly the crowd surged forward crashing into the wall of cops directly in front of Kevin. The wall seemed to break apart directly in front of him, forcing the cop directly in front back, straight into Kevin.

Both fell to the ground next to one of the squad cars. "Christ!" grunted Kevin as he landed on the ground. Charlie ran over to the now empty space and tried to keep the crowd back. But they seemed to be getting more aggressive, or desperate. Some looked horrified, as if they might die in there. There was screaming, lots of screaming.

Kevin crawled back to his feet. Over to his right he saw the news van for the channel Raccoon 7, and the camera was pointed at him. "Oh, great." He grunted as he turned away from the camera. "What the hell is going on?" He asked Charlie, who was now trying to help in holding the crowd back.

"I don't know, the crowd just went nuts." He yelled over his shoulder. Charlie seemed to be holding himself well, considering it was still his first week. He was one of the new recruits, and had come all the way from Atlanta. _This is gonna be a great end to his first week_ Kevin thought.

"Oh my god!" Someone yelled from the crowd. "He's eating him!" At that the front line of the crowd seemed to freeze, the statement hitting them. "He's crazy!" came another yell as people started screaming from the middle of the crowd.

"What the hell is going on back there?" Kevin said. Then, he saw something he would never forget.

He looked over to Charlie, who was still looking into the crowd, and saw someone fall out into the front, just to the right of him. He had blood running down his face, but that didn't disturb him. It was his eyes, they were pale white, and the pupils could barely be seen. The man had short brown hair and a torn red jacket. His eyes, or what he had to guess were his eyes, fell onto Charlie, and he advanced. Charlie didn't even see him.

"Charlie watch out!" Kevin yelled as he ran over, but it was too late. The man clamped his hands on Charlie's arm and threw his head forward, his mouth wide. Charlie was taken off guard and the man sunk his teeth deep into Charlie's shoulder. Charlie screamed and fell back, the man on top of him.

"Charlie!" Kevin yelled as he ran behind the man and grabbed the man under the arms and hauled him up. Another cop ran to assist him. "You got him?" Kevin groaned as the man struggled against him. He wasn't even yelling, he seemed to be snarling.

"Yeah, I got him." The other cop said as Kevin loosened his grip to the man's side. Suddenly the man swung his head left, to Kevin. Kevin reared his back just in time as the man's teeth clamped down on the thin air where his nose had just been. Kevin staggered back slightly and the man leaned forward to him, but was yanked back by the second cop. He turned to face him and put his hands on his neck, leaning forward as much as he could, desperately trying to bite him. The cop had his hands at the base of man's neck, keeping him at bay as Kevin got out his handcuffs and ran back to the man.

"Cuff him to the car." Kevin said as he slapped a cuff on the man's hand and yanked on the chain, causing the man to fall sideways against the car door. Kevin chained the other cuff to the handle on the car door. The man swung around and grabbed hold of Kevin, forcing him to the ground. He groaned as he tried to lower his mouth to him.

"You son of a bitch!" Kevin yelled as he pushed the man back against the car. He came again at Kevin, who swung his right fist at his face, sending him crashing back into the car, slightly stunned. Kevin managed to back away to a safe distance. He looked over at Charlie, who was being helped up by three other cops. His shoulder looked like it was bleeding quite badly. Kevin started towards him when someone approached him from the left.

"Excuse me?" Said a woman. Kevin turned to see an attractive woman with short blonde hair in a red jacket and pants. She had a press id on her jacket. "My name is Alyssa Ashcroft and I'm with the Raccoon Press. I'd like to ask you about what's going on here."

"I don't care who you're with lady." Kevin said, "I don't know what happening either, only that it's too dangerous for you to be here right now so get back to a safe distance!" With that Kevin turned away from the woman, hearing her grunt behind him. It was a shame, she was hot, but he wasn't in the mood to give the pretty girl her way.

He headed back over to Charlie, the wacko that bit him was still trying to attack anyone who came close enough. It was weird; it was like he didn't even know he was cuffed to the car. There was something wrong with him, he was sick in the head or something. Either way, they had to get this riot under control before they dealt with him.

"Charlie are you alright?" he asked as he walked over to him. He was holding his hand to his unbandaged shoulder, blood seeped through his fingers and ran down his sleeve, staining the fabric dark blue.

"Yeah," Charlie said through clenched teeth, "hurts like a bitch though." Before Kevin could say anything there was a call from behind them. Kevin turned to see two cops struggling with another man in a white suit; he had long hair down to his mouth and a beard, and his eyes were as white as the other guy's. He could have passed for a sailor at a long glance. The two cops were struggling with him as he snarled and snapped at them with his mouth.

"What the hell?" Kevin said, "Another one?! What the hell is going on?" How could there be another one? It didn't make sense. He looked over at the one chained up at the car; he was still trying to struggle free of the hand cuffs. He looked back at the guy in the white suit, who was now drooling over the two cops that were fighting with him. In front of them the crowd surged forward slightly throwing the cops of guard. The man lunged forward and grabbed one of them by the shoulders and sunk his teeth straight into his neck. The cop yelled in pain.

"Shit!" Kevin yelled as he ran up and grabbed the man. The other cop ran up to help him. "Get him off him!" Kevin said as they both pulled at the man. The man finally drew back from the cop, ripping away flesh as he did. The cop groaned in pain and fell to the ground.

"Fred!" Yelled Mike, who had a hold of the man along with Kevin, and released his grip on the man to run to his friend. The man immediately turned to Kevin.

"Oh crap." Kevin said as the lunged at him. Kevin put one hand under his chin, keeping him at bay. "Get the hell of me!" The man didn't even seem to hear, he just seemed focused on ripping Kevin's throat out. He now got a good look at his eyes. He could barely see his pupils; they were vaguely visible beneath the white that had engulfed his eyes. Saliva rolled down his chin as he moaned almost hungrily at Kevin.

Kevin stumbled back slightly, but managed to hold the man at bay. He ended up turning completely around so that he was now facing the crowd and the man had his back to them. With a massive heave Kevin shoved the man back away from him. He fell backwards onto one of the protestors in the crowd, and both fell to the ground.

"Oh hell!" Kevin ran over to the edge of the crowd, but his vision became obscured as they surged to the left, making the man disappear from his site. "Ah crap." Kevin said as he considered going into find him. But that thought was wiped from his mind as sirens were heard approaching, police and ambulance sirens. _Took them long enough_ he thought as he walked back to Mike and Fred.

Fred was lying no the ground, with three other cops around him. Mike had taken off his jacket and held it up to the wound in his neck. "Somebody call an ambulance!" he yelled.

"It's alright." Kevin said, looking ahead, "Here they come." Up ahead ambulances and police vans were pulling up. Reinforcement police officers got out of their cars and came to assist their colleagues. Marvin got out of a squad car as he pulled up.

"What the hell happened?" he asked as he came over.

"I dunno," Kevin said, "The crowd just went crazy all of a sudden."

"We need a paramedic over here!" Mike yelled from Fred, who was still on the ground. Immediately paramedics descended on them as they ran from the ambulances.

"Jesus." Marvin said looking at Fred. "How did that happen?"

"Someone bit him." Kevin said, getting a disbelieving look from Marvin. "I don't know why, but he seemed crazy. I lost him in the crowd. There was another though, I cuffed him to that car." Kevin pointed over to the car where the first lunatic attacker was. Marvin turned in his direction.

The man still snarled and tried to move forward, oblivious to the cuffs. "What the hell is wrong with him?" Asked Marvin.

"I honestly ain't got a clue man." Kevin said, "But I cuffed him to that car after he bit Charlie."

"He bit Charlie?" Marvin asked, worriedly. "Is he okay?"

"I think so." Kevin said, looking over to where Charlie was now being treated by paramedics. Fred was being carried away on a stretcher to an ambulance. "He just came out of the crowd and bit his shoulder."

"Christ." Marvin said. "We've been getting a record number of assault reports back at the station. Almost all of them have reported biting and scratching."

At the front line the reinforcement officers were helping to hold the crowd back. "We need to get the riot police down here." Kevin said, looking at the crowd.

"They should be here soon." Marvin said, "They're aware of the situation and were being briefed as we left." Behind them the crowd seemed to be getting worse. Kevin knew they wouldn't be able to hold them back much longer; the crazed lunatics had made them uneasy, especially with one still in there. They needed the riot police, and fast.

An answer came as a riot police van drew up behind them and the doors opened to reveal riot police armed with batons and glass shields. They charged out straight for the front line of the crowd. "It's about time!" Kevin yelled as they ran past them.

The door to the passenger side of the van opened and Chief Irons stepped out, and he looked worse than he had that morning. His face and shirt were drenched with sweat, and he looked like he was ready to fight a war. His eyes fell on the man cuffed to the car, and his eyes widened.

"Get him in the back of the van, quick!" He shouted and two riot police at his side ran up to the man. One grabbed his neck and held him back while the other worked on getting the cuffs off. "If you find any others get them in the vans too!"

_Any others?_ Kevin thought. D_oes he know something we don't? What does he mean by others like him? He only just saw him. _Kevin watched Irons as he ran past him and over to Charlie. He started demanding questions of what had happened. He seemed almost ecstatic.

At the crowd the police were starting to beat and push them back. Some people were starting to run away, it looked like it was finally coming under control. Maybe they'd be able to find that other lunatic once they dispersed a bit.

Marvin seemed to thinking the same things as Kevin as he decided to approach Irons. "Chief, what's going on?" He asked Irons, who wasn't paying that much attention to him. "Do you know what might be wrong with that man or something?"

At that Irons spun around to face Marvin. "Mind your own God damn business Branagh!" Irons bellowed at him and turned back to the crowd that was rapidly thinning. Marvin seemed a bit taken back, and started to turn away. "Are there any more?" Irons said turning again.

"What?" Marvin said turning back.

"Are there any more people like him?" Irons asked pointing at the first lunatic who was now being thrown into the back of a police van. The door was slammed shut as he rose up behind it, clawing futilely at it. It was as if he didn't even know where he was.

"Yeah." Marvin said looking back at Irons. "Kevin said there was another one out there."

"Find him!" Irons yelled at one of the riot cops who nodded and started moving his way through the crowd. "Bring him back and put him in the van." Kevin watched as the officer disappeared into the mass of panicked people who were now in the process of fleeing the scene.

"Chief," Kevin said as he approached him and Marvin. "What's going on? What's wrong with that guy and the other one?"

"Shut the hell up Ryman!" Irons yelled, "All I know is that these guys are dangerous because they just tried to kill Fred and Charlie, who knows if they managed to kill someone in the crowd!" With that he turned and walked away.

The police started to break up the crowds, creating a divide around the middle. Most people were leaving, others were still trying to fight but most were shaken by what had happened.

The riot was now over, there was no more fighting or struggling, most people were leaving, some were being arrested and put into cars, and blood stained the road that the police had now blocked off, but there was no sign of the man in the white suit. The riot cop had given up his search for him and had returned back to Irons.

Kevin looked over as Marvin started to get aggressive with Irons and was starting to demand why Irons had been so secretive. Irons kept telling he heard about them on the radio and had decided to apprehend them. Marvin didn't look like he believed it, and neither did Kevin.

It was the way Irons had looked at the first man when he came out. He didn't look confused; it was almost a look of recognition. He knew something alright, but the only way they would have any chance of getting that out of him would probably be through extremely painful torture, and Kevin didn't think that was going to happen any time soon.

He looked over and saw that the news crews were now approaching some officers asking for interviews. He noticed that blonde who had approached him earlier, but she didn't see him. She was busy writing on her little notepad.

_You know, _Kevin thought, _she's really not bad looking._ Maybe he had been too hard on her earlier; maybe he'd give her that interview now. Maybe find out a bit more about her. He walked towards her, she looked up he got closer.

"Hi." Kevin said smiling as he reached her. "Look I'm sorry about earlier but things were kinda bad. If you want to ask me some questions now you can."

"I don't think so smartass." She said, wiping the smile clean off his face. "That chat up line doesn't work on me, and besides, I've seen all I need to. Now I gotta get back to the office and start writing the scoop of the century I just saw here." She smiled and walked away around the corner to where her car was parked. Kevin stared after her dumfounded.

"Uh…ok." He said, even though she couldn't hear him. He looked over at the van with the lunatic. Four cops were crowded around the door to the van watching its inhabitant. Kevin walked over to join them.

"What do you think's wrong with him?" Alex said as he approached. The lunatic was now banging feebly on the door, trying his best to get out. "Look at his eyes, what the hell is wrong with him."

"I dunno." Said Phil, "He must be insane or something like that. He hasn't even said anything. It's almost like he doesn't know how to speak."

"Maybe he doesn't." Kevin said as he joined them. "Maybe he's so ill he's lost all speech. Are any nut houses nearby, maybe they escaped from there?"

"Nah." Said Alex, "The closest nut house is at least an hour's drive outside of the city; in the middle of nowhere. There's no way one of them could make it all the way over here."

"So what?" Phil said, "You think he came from here."

"I know he did." Alex said, "I've seen this guy around a few times. I don't get it." He said shaking his head. "He's always so normal. How could a perfectly normal kinda guy go crazy like this? It doesn't make sense."

"Hey," Dean, another cop called from in front of _Buck's Electronics Store_. "Looks like we're not the only ones who had to deal with riots."

"What do you mean?" Phil called back.

"There was a riot at the Shark's game today." Said Dean, "Come and take a look." Kevin, Alex and Phil walked away from the van and over to Dean. How could there be riots in two parts of the city? That had never happened before.

They walked up the display windows of the store, which had closed due to the riot. The owner himself was over talking to Marvin to see if it was okay to open up his store again. One of the televisions in the display room was showing channel coverage of the Raccoon Sharks game, and it looked bad.

There was fighting in the stands and on the pitch. Police and security were doing their best to try and contain it but it was getting out of control. The camera zoomed in on two guys dragging another to the ground, the camera zoomed out again before Kevin could see what they were doing to him, but it didn't look like they were punching him.

"They've called the game off." Dean said, looking at the screen. "The Shark's were ten points up as well. I've never heard of anything like this."

"Any idea how it happened?" Kevin asked.

"Apparently some guy started attacking another guy, causing him to fall on some guy who didn't like people falling on him or something like that." Dean said. "It just…happened."

"That sounds exactly like here." Kevin said, sighing "Could today get any worse."

"It just did." Mike said as he approached them. "It's Fred, he uh, he just died in the ambulance."

"Jesus." Dean said, shocked, as were the others.

"Yeah," Mike said, "The guy must have bit too deep into his neck. Irons wants him taken back to the morgue at the station. I don't why but I don't really want to argue with Irons right now." The others nodded in agreement. "Marvin wants us back at the station to try and figure out what happened here."

"Yeah okay." Dean said and walked away from the window, followed by the Mike. Kevin stayed there with Alex and Phil, looking at the TV, which was now showing a news reporter in a studio talking with a picture of the riot outside the Umbrella plant being shown in the background. So now there had been two riots, one there and one at the football grounds.

"Guess all bets are off." Kevin said, as he started to turn away, "Dorian is gonna be pissed."

XXX

The television flashed showing images of violence; people punching each other, people running and falling, others being dragged down be those who meant to harm them and police trying to bring everything under control. And David King merely grunted. He really didn't care about it much, he'd had worse anyway, and so a few idiots at a riot didn't really bother him.

"God," said the young Japanese girl next to him, "It looks like its really bad there."

"Heh, whatever." David said turning away from the TV. "I gotta get back to work on your sink."

"Oh, okay." The girl said nervousness in her voice. She didn't know how to act around him, and he could tell. People generally didn't know how to act around him. He didn't know why, he just tried to get by like the next Joe, but for some reason people were always afraid of him.

He had received the call the previous night that one of the sinks in a university dorm wasn't working properly, so David had agreed to look at it the next day at two. He had already done a little work on Ms. Suzuki's sink and had taken a break when she offered him a drink. Then the news had come on.

It was always the same old crap. Murder, global warming, assault, always the same old shit. _Society's fucked, just focus on surviving._ That was David's view on it, probably not one shared by the majority of the world, but it was his anyway. He walked into the tiled bathroom, the stuff those university kids got was better than his own apartment, if he could call it that.

He bent down underneath the sink and got back to work. The sink in question had been leaking, in various places. Turned out some cowboy had been hired by the university and had done a crap job on the pipe. David almost had it fixed anyway.

"Oh Yoko," said the girl's roommate as she walked through the door. "Dr. Keidis cancelled the test tomorrow and it's been rescheduled to next week."

"Oh okay." He heard Yoko say back. He mentally drowned out the rest of the conversation, deciding the focus more on the pipe than the plans of two teenage girls for the weekend. He fixed the final leak and was done. He started to pack up his tools, now unable to drown out the conversation.

"So Travis and I will be gone for the weekend." Said the roommate. David looked over at both of them. The girl had long blonde hair and young features with an even complexion, her roommate, Yoko, had long black hair and glasses that hid most of her face, giving her the classic dork image. David didn't like classic images though, they went along with stereotyping, and David hated stereotyping. "So you'll be okay for the weekend?" The girl asked.

"Of course I'll be fine." Yoko said, "You just have a good time Charlene." David couldn't help but smile at that; sometimes he envied that other people younger than him could have a good time. He never had time for that; he didn't have time for much in his youth. It was all bad memories.

The girls said goodbye to each other as David came out of the bathroom. "Oh, have you finished?" Yoko asked as Charlene left the room.

"Yeah." David said.

Before he could say anything else a man walked into the room. He was in his fifties, for sure. His greying hair was positioned around the back of his head giving him a bald appearance. Wrinkles had started to form on his face. He was wearing a Grey suit with a brown tie.

"Hi Mr. Peterson." Yoko said as he entered. He smiled at her and looked over at David.

"Please follow me Mr. King." Mr. Peterson said and left the room. David followed him as he left the room, leaving a slightly bemused Yoko behind, and started down the hallway. He didn't say anything, but that didn't really bother David. He didn't see the point to small talk. He preferred to get straight to business.

They headed down the stairs and out the front door of the residential building. They emerged out into the university courtyard. Students milled about going to lessons or to their dormitory, or out into the city. Peterson took a sharp right and walked up the stone steps to the doors of the grand university.

The grand scale of the university was reflected inside as well as outside. The main hall was about the biggest place he had ever seen. Straight ahead was a reception desk, which was shadowed by a huge landing which was accessed by two stairs on either side, and another two that led to the second floor balcony that overlooked the hall. Doors were built into the right and left sides of the hall.

"This way." Mr. Peterson said and led David around the reception to one of the stairs and led him up to the second floor.

"Where are we going?" David asked.

"To my office." Peterson said back, "It's located on the second floor." David grunted a reply as Peterson opened one of the doors in the corner of the balcony and held it open for David.

"Thanks." He said as he went through. Peterson nodded. The hallway was decorated with wooden walls with pictures of the university from the outside and display cases with awards the university had received.

It had been established at the turn of the century, and had retained its Victorian style image throughout the ninety-eight years of its life. Raccoon was proud of keeping it like that, keeping their heritage. It was one of the few universities in the country that could boast a historical feel to it.

"This is it." Peterson said as they rounded the corner and he opened a door on the left. He held it open for David to go through. His office looked more like a spacious living room than an office. A red leather sofa was stretched along one wall, as well as a coffee table and a plant in the corner. At the far wall was Peterson's desk with a grand oak table in front of it. Several papers were on it all in neat stacks.

"Please sit down." Peterson said. David preferred to stand as he felt venerable when he sat, like he was at their mercy. But he decided it was probably best not to disobey this guy, especially since the plaque on his desk read _Jason Peterson, School President. _"I'll get straight to the point." Peterson said sitting down in front of David. "How much will Ms. Suzuki's sink cost?"

_What? _David thought. _Why didn't he just ask me back there? Why drag me all the way over here to ask me how much they owe me? _"Uh, thirty dollars." David said.

"I'll give you twenty." Peterson said.

"What?" David said back, surprised. _Is he joking? _The stern look on Peterson's face showed David that he wasn't joking. "Why?"

"Because you decided to relinquish the details of your sordid past when we called you." Peterson said. "I found out through your manager Mr. Henderson." _That's what this is about?_ David though, _He just doesn't like me?_

"This university," Peterson continued, "is the most prestigious university in this entire state. And we do not take kindly to people of your…stature."

_You son of a bitch,_ David thought.

"You're lucky you're even getting paid at all in this case." Peterson said and slided a twenty dollar note across the table. "I suggest you take the money and leave Mr. King."

"Or what?" David said. Now he was starting to get angry. This guy was cheating him out of money just because of his past. Everything kept going wrong because of it, it was like he couldn't get a break from it, or escape it.

"Are you threatening me Mr. King?" Peterson said, getting aggressive. "Because something like that wouldn't be a very good move for someone such as you would it?"

David didn't say anything in reply, he couldn't. They guy was right. If he filed a threat charge against him they would probably put him inside, and that was what he didn't want, ever.

"I thought so." Peterson said. "I suggest you take the money Mr. King." His eyes met with David's for a moment. David's burned like fire while Peterson's looked more subdued, safe even. He felt safe from David; because he knew David could do nothing to him.

"Fine!" David grunted and snatched the twenty dollars off the table and walked to the door. Peterson watched him as he left.

X X X

George signed his own name on the death certificate in front of him; the fifth one that day. And those were only the ones he had to deal with; there had been others who had died in the hands of other doctors as well, bringing the total to something near fifteen. Some had been in car crashes, but most had been brought in from the riots. But their injuries had been severe, the ones that had died had shown what looked to be biting marks, he didn't understand how that would be possible.

In a fight if someone got a little more animal than man then it would seem plausible for him to bite another man, but this was different. He would only bite once, and continue to punch and beat his opponent. Some of the people looked they had been repeatedly bitten; parts of flesh had even been ripped away.

He didn't understand why it was happening, or why so many were showing the symptoms of being bitten. Worse still was the fact that human saliva from bites, if they broke the skin, would transfer any virus the biter had straight into the victim. If the biter had HIV the victim would more than likely contract HIV soon after.

He sighed and brought his hand up to his forehead. He was tired, he had been working straight from nine AM that morning, and it was now Three O'clock in the afternoon. He would probably have to work late as well. He probably wouldn't get off until about six or seven. And then he remembered: Catherine.

He had vowed to himself that morning he would make things up to her, that he would move away from his workaholic life and focus more on her. And already he was forgetting it. _No,_ he thought to himself. _I won't put my work before her, not anymore. _He couldn't, he had made a vow and he intended to stick to it. He would leave at five and take her out to one of the best restaurants in the city. He would make up for all the times he had let her down.

He pushed the completed death certificate aside and reached into his pocket for his cell phone, the one Catherine had bought him for his birthday back in August. He accessed the menu and scrolled down to his saved numbers. Catherine's was the first one. He pressed the call button.

He heard the ringing as he placed the phone to his ear. He's surprise her by saying he'd be home early, and get her to choose which restaurant they went to that night. He'd make her happy again. Like she used to be.

"George." She said as she picked up. She sounded like she had been anticipating his call. She probably had been; it had been six hours. He had meant to call earlier but the casualties had just kept coming in.

"Catherine," he said, "I'll be home as soon as I can maybe an hour or two. I want to make some plans for tonight."

"George," she said cutting him off. "Just stop right there. I'm staying at Deborah's for a few days. I need some space."

"What?" George said, stunned. Deborah was her sister and lived in the Cider District of the city. It was the place where the body of the female hiker had been found back in the summer. "What do you mean you're staying there?"

"I'm staying with my sister for a few days." She said solemnly down the phone. "I just need a few days to think things out."

"Think what out?" George said, panicking. "Our marriage? I swear I'll be back earlier each day. I want to go out tonight, just the two of us. You choose the place. You name it we'll go."

"George, you can't just fix it like that." She said. "I'm not saying I want a divorce, I just need some time alone to think things through."

George couldn't speak, he felt like he had a rock in his throat. "I promised to be back today for you." He said, struggling to find the words. "Please, don't do this. I'm trying, I really am."

"I know you're trying George," she said, "and that means a lot to me. But I can't just go back and start all over. I just need time to think. I'll be back, I promise." George couldn't speak; he just sat there, the phone to his ear, thinking of how he had screwed up. "Goodbye George." She said and hung up the phone.

He lowered the phone with his hand, staring into space. He had been too late, he should have realised what he had done before. He had four years to notice it. He had four years to try and fix it. Now he did realise it, and it may have been too late.

His marriage was on the rocks, and he hadn't noticed it until now. Now he was feeling the full effect of it. How could it have happened? Why now? Why, just when he was beginning to sort things out did she decide to do this? Why didn't he decide to sort things out earlier? Why did he not see until now?

He buried his head in his hands, hoping maybe he could escape today and start it again. If he could he would stay at home, he didn't care how many people would have gone untreated, and he hadn't been able to save them anyway. And, to him, his wife was more important than them.

There was a knock at his office door, snapping him out of his thoughts. Work was intervening once again, interfering with his marriage. It wouldn't leave him alone. Even now, when all he wanted was his wife, work attacked him again.

"Come in." George said looking up at the door and sitting straight again. The door opened and Linda, one of the staff nurses entered carrying a Petri dish.

"I'm sorry to disturb you Doctor Hamilton." She said as she walked over to his desk. "We did a blood test on one of the patients who was bitten at the riot at the Umbrella Plant, and well…we found something."

"What?" George asked. He was afraid some viruses may be transmitted, but they would know what disease it was.

"We don't know." Linda said, "And that's what worries us. Do you have a microscope?"

"Uh yes." George said and turned around in his chair to the shelf behind him. The microscope was on the bottom shelf. "So what's the problem?" he asked as he turned back around.

"It's easier if you just see." Linda said, handing him the Petri dish. "But it's not like anything I've ever seen before."

"Okay." George said as he took the Petri dish. He slid it under the lens and switched it to the high lens. What he saw baffled him. "What in the world…" he trailed off as he looked through the lens. The specimen had a severely low measure of white blood cells, and something else; something that was attacking the few remaining white blood cells and spreading rapidly. George had never seen anything like it. "This patient's white blood cells are being attacked by some kind of virus."

"We already checked and he doesn't have malaria." Linda said. "I don't understand it. But the man himself doesn't look good."

"What do you mean?" George said looking up from the microscope.

"He looks pale." Linda said, "Extremely pale. Dark circles have formed under his eyes. He was sick just five minutes ago. We're considering keeping him in overnight."

"You say he got bitten at one of the riots?" George asked, worry building in him.

"Yes." Linda said, "He said this crazy guy came up to him and started attacking him. He said he had these strange eyes."

"Okay." George said, standing up from his desk. "We need to take blood samples from everyone who was injured in that riot. If this man has something in his blood there may be others. We need to find how many people have this…infection."

"Okay." Linda said, slightly surprised. "Not everyone injured may have come in, there may be some who just went to their GP, or just don't think they need medical attention."

"You're right." George said, "They may not feel need to come in if it's small. They might just disinfect it at home. We need to contact the police and get them to make a statement telling everyone to who's been injured to seek medical attention."

"I'll get Doctor Collins to make the call sir." Linda said.

"Good." George said, "We need to get to work on this right away." He walked towards the door. He guessed he would have to work late tonight, which wasn't so bad considering he really didn't feel like going home. He had work to do, they had to figure out how bad the infection of the unknown virus could be, and they had to warn others. They would find out the extent soon enough.

X X X

The Briefing room was quieter than usual, Kevin wasn't surprised. Today had been a bad day; Fred was dead and Charlie's condition had regressed and he was now in some kind of a coma. Kevin didn't know how that was possible from a shoulder wound, or how it had happened in a matter of hours, but it had. He was currently on a life support machine in Raccoon hospital.

He looked around, noting the two empty seats where Fred and Charlie usually were. There was some discussion going around, but it was a lot less than usual. He guessed not everyone was in a talkative mood. Marvin had called all the cops who had been present at the riot, pretty much everyone except for the guys clearing up at the stadium riots, to report to the briefing room. No doubt he was going to relay the bureaucratic bullshit Irons had given him.

He had mentioned to Kevin he was going to talk to Irons and basically demand to know what had gone on back there. He still hadn't come back, and they'd been waiting over five minutes. There was a noise at the back as the door opened and he finally arrived.

"Sorry I'm late everyone." He said as he walked past the chairs. He walked over to the front by the white board and stood at the podium. "I'm sure you all want to know exactly what went on today. I do too. I was just up stairs at Irons' office, and basically, I demanded to know what went on today. He denied any knowledge and had me forcibly removed from his office. He's not talking."

There were a few resounding grunts and sighs from the room at the last sentence. If it were possible, Kevin was sure some of them wanted nothing more to have a mutiny on Irons that very instant.

"Charlie," Marvin continued, "Is apparently in a stable condition at the hospital. I don't know what happened to the attackers that we apprehended. I looked down at the cells and none of them are there. At present, we don't really know what happened or what caused it."

At the back the door opened again and one of the deputies stepped in. He looked over at Marvin and motioned him over. Marvin nodded and continued.

"That's all we know at this time." He said, "Things are to continue as normal. I'll keep you posted as I learn more. Dismissed." He stepped down from the podium as others started to rise from their seats. Kevin watched as he approached the deputy. He joined the other officers as they headed for the door, walking especially slow past Marvin and the deputy so he could overhear their conversation.

"Chief Irons wants you in his office right away." The deputy said.

"Why?" Marvin asked.

"He got some kind of call from the hospital, apparently he and the mayor need to make some kind of statement, I don't know the specifics." The deputy said.

"Okay." Marvin said and they left, heading right as they left the room. Kevin headed left, to the main entrance as his shift ended in ten minutes. He just wanted out, away from the god damn stations and away from that prick Irons. Maybe he'd go to a bar, assuming they admitted him this time.

It had been one weird ass day, and was about to get a whole lot weirder.

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A/N: Okay long time no see. I would have gotten these up sooner but my life's been kind of a rollercoaster this year. Moving around constantly and not having the internet, plus a whole lot of other crap. Plus now I'm college so that takes up a lot time, and I've finally realised I could upload this chapter at a public computer via a USB stick. I wrote this back in February, but I'm going to try and get regular-ish updates from now on. I intend to see this fic to the end.

For those of you waiting to get to the outbreak, sorry it's taking a while, I'm trying to put in hints of it in this one, I think I'll need about one more chapter before it starts. I don't really want to compromise on the characters in favour of the action, but it will come soon.

About Yoko: She's a university student in the game, so I decided to write her as one. She still has that past with Umbrella but since that was two years ago, I can only assume she's in her new life after the procedure or whatever they did to her, and she as far as she knows she's had a normal life. So I decided not to write her as an amnesiac, but she will start to get her past memory back through the course of the outbreak.

I'm going to be bringing a take on David's past that is hinted in the game and that my friend agrees with too, so he might do something radical in coming chapters, but that's just to help his character, as he's going to go on one hell of a journey through the outbreak.

And that's it for this chapter, all reviews accepted.


	5. Calm Before The Storm

**Chapter Five: Calm Before the Storm**

"Hey," Mark Wilkins said. "You kids shouldn't be here, we're closing up." Those kids were always pressing their luck in the mall. They were always hanging around, especially around closing time. They weren't threatening, just mischievous. Mark guessed it was an attention thing; they had nothing better to do so they spent their time pestering the guards at the mall.

"Oh look." One of them said with a cheeky grin on his face. "Mr. T's coming," This elicited a few giggles from some of the others. Mark shook his head; they were always calling him Mr. T. Bob laughed. He found it humorous, Mark didn't. He never did.

He was almost tempted to pull out his nine millimetre and threaten them with it, but that would have been irresponsible and he could lose his job. The standard gun was only to be used in extreme situations, and unfortunately, idiot kids didn't count as extreme.

"Get outta here!" Mark yelled. "Before you really get into trouble." He didn't have time for this; he shouldn't even have worked today. So many guys had called in sick, he and Bob had both had to work on their days off.

"Or what?" One of them yelled back laughing.

"Or Mr. T will kick all yer asses." Bob said, pointing to Mark. Mark flinched a bit at that. He knew Bob was joking, but he never really did take criticism or jokes that well, he blamed Nam' for that. The kids laughed as they walked away through the Plexiglas doors of the mall. Mark and Bob stepped up to it and began locking it.

"You alright?" Bob asked as he looked over at Mark.

"Yeah I'm alright." Mark said turning the key in the lock. "Just tired."

"Yeah me too." Bob said. "I coulda been home right now, with a nice beer in hand."

"Yeah." Mark said as he finished locking up the door. "So many guys of ill today, doesn't really make sense. Teresa didn't even want me to work today." They started walking away from the door and back into the body of the mall. "She says I'm getting to old for this, she's probably right."

"Yeah," Bob said, "I've been thinking about retiring some time soon as well. Most people do around fifty five."

"Or Fifty three." Mark said. "I did most of my work during Nam'. That should have been more than enough for any man." And it had been, he hadn't exactly been accepted readily by the troops when he had first joined. But he had earned their respect, something he though he shouldn't have had to do. There was no room for racism in war; and yet most wars were about racism, or at least encouraged racism for the enemy to the troops. It was an interesting contradiction, and one Mark had contemplated over the years. The very term Viet Kong, had been fabricated to make them sound fiercer, like the giant Gorilla who shared the same name.

"So how's Reese doing?" Bob asked.

"He's doing fine." Mark said, "Teacher says he's the smartest in his class. Looking to get an A+ this year." Reese was Mark's fifteen year old son and an ace at school. Their living room and Reese's bedroom was filled with trophy's he had gotten over the years. He had made Mark and Teresa proud time and time again. His most recent achievement had been getting first place in the science fair again. Mark always said it had to have come from his mother since she was a lecturer at the university, and Mark had difficulty multiplying in double digits.

"Good for him." Bob said, "So you got any plans for tonight?"

"Not really." Mark said as walked through a staff only door and headed to the locker room.

"Why don't we get something to eat at J's around half eight or something?" Bob suggested.

"Why half eight?" Mark asked.

"I gotta pick up some things and take them back to the apartment." Bob said.

"Okay," Mark replied, "But are you sure you're up to it? You said it yourself you ain't been feeling well."

"Yeah I'll make it." Bob said, "It's just the flu."

"Well okay." Mark said, but it didn't look like the flu. His face looked slightly pale and small dark circles were forming under his eyes. He decided not to press it any further though. If Bob said he was going, he would go until he passed out. That was the thing about Bob, he was so stubborn. He'd been stubborn since Mark had known him, even dating back to 'Nam.

They hadn't been in the same squad, but when they were in the jungle both of their squad had come under heavy fire and found themselves pinned down. Bob had been the only one to listen to Mark's plan to draw their fire and flank them, as most of his own squad were still pissed to still have the 'Coon in their squad. One of them, Billy-Rae (Mark had always thought that was one of the dumbest names he'd even heard and couldn't understand why anyone would call their son that, but then when he heard Billy's redneck drawl, he quickly understood), had even opted to trade Mark over to the Vietnamese as a sign of peace.

Billy-Rae had actually helped Mark out of a moral dilemma when they actually did start the flanking manoeuvre. Mark had one of the Vietnamese in his sights and trying to find the urge to pull the trigger himself when Billy-Rae shot him instead, saying he'd 'rather have the kill than give it to some 'Coon'. After the war was over Billy-Rae had been sent to a mental institution for going insane and killing some soldiers in his barracks. Bob had always said it was 'Poetic justice as the guy was always being a jackass'.

They walked through the locker room and over to the managers office. Bob knocked and then entered.

"Mr. Reynolds," Bob said, "That's us done for the day."

Reynolds looked up at them from their, and Mark nearly jumped back from fright. He looked worse than Bob. His skin was almost white, and all around his eyes was practically black. He nodded at them weakly.

"You know," Bob said, "You should really go home sir." Reynolds nodded again and looked back down at a paper on his desk. Bob motioned to Mark and walked outside the office, closing the door behind them. As they did Reynolds's head fell onto the papers he was reading. Neither of them saw it.

"Poor man." Bob said as they walked to their lockers.

XXX

Jim Chapman picked up his puzzle book from his locker in the staff room and closed it over. A couple of other subway employees were in the room as well. Both were sitting in front of the TV that was showing coverage of the earlier riots in the city.

Jim turned the corner and looked over. It was now showing a press conference with the mayor and the police chief. "We are urging anyone who was injured during the riots, either by a bite or a scratch, to seek medical attention immediately due to risk of infection."

"Shit." Jim said as he looked on.

"Yeah." Said Max, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Apparently one cop died and another is in hospital."

"Damn." Jim said, "I know some people are against chemical testing, but that's a bit far."

"Yeah." Said Keith, next to Max. "So you off?"

"Yup." Replied Jim, "Off to J's for a while."

"Okay," Keith said, "See you tomorrow."

"Yeah see ya." Jim said and walked to the door. He checked his pocket to make sure he had his pen and then opened the door. He was practically considered a regular at J's, even though he didn't actually drink; he always just ordered a soda. Alcohol wasn't exactly the best thing for him when he was doing his puzzles. Plus his mother had been a raging alcoholic, which had pretty much put him off alcohol too.

J's wasn't like any other joints in town, it was relaxing, peaceful. It didn't have the usual drunks other places did, well, except for that Jackass cop, but he was the only one, and even that wasn't too frequent. Plus the food wasn't too bad either.

The city itself wasn't that bad either. Jim had lived there with his grandma since he was fifteen, after his mother had drunk herself to death. Since then he'd lived with his grandma in Raccoon, and now had his own apartment in a small downtown area.

As he walked down the corridor he saw Ricky, one of the guys just coming in for his shift, and boy did he look bad. He looked white as a sheet and all around his eyes were dark circles. If he ran into him in a dark alley, Jim was sure he'd shit his pants.

"Sup." Jim said cocked his head to Ricky, who barely even acknowledged him. A small grunt escaped his lips which Jim felt was the best he could muster at that moment so shrugged it off and kept walking.

He heard the door open and close behind him as he walked on. He made his way up through the door onto main body of the station. He was too far away to hear Keith scream as Ricky bit into his neck.

XXX

David King had had a shit day, and now at quarter past seven at night, it wasn't getting any better. First Peterson had refused to pay him the full price, then the guy at his next job treated him less than dirt and had grudgingly given him the money, and now Henderson was giving him a hard time for his days work.

"You're not bringing in enough money David." Henderson said his face sincere. "You've not been bringing in good profit for two weeks."

"Hey, it's not my fault." David said. "Peterson refused to pay me because you told him about me, and that other guy was just a complete asshole."

"I told him because we have to be honest to out customers." Henderson said. "People are afraid of you David. You're too anti-social."

"I'm not." David said. "I just don't see time for small talk, that's all."

"Small talk makes customers warm to you." Henderson said back. "It lets them know you a bit better, so that they trust you more. With you, it's all action no talk. It makes them scared. They think you'll try to rob them, or worse."

"You know I wouldn't do that." David said.

"I know you wouldn't." Henderson said, "But they don't know that. Look, David," he said, walking around his desk to him. "I like you, but you gotta change. You can't keep up this silent attitude to our customers. Okay?"

"Okay." David said sighing.

"It's either that," Henderson said. "Or I may have to let you go. And I don't want to do that."

David looked at him, and nodded, lowering his eyes. "Okay," Henderson said, "I'll see you tomorrow David."

"Yeah." David said and left the office. He felt angry as he walked down the steps to the door of the building. He was angry at everyone, how they kept treating him like dirt, how they used his past against him. But he was angry at himself too, for being stupid enough to have a past like that.

He walked out into the night. It was silent and cold. Like his mood. Why did this keep happening to him? Why did his past keep screwing up every opportunity he had in life? He couldn't escape it. It kept haunting him. Chasing him, reminding him of who he was.

But he wasn't that person anymore. He was just like everyone else. That was why he had chosen to be a plumber at the city, so that he could be just like everyone else. He could repay his debt, be like other people, other normal people. He could be normal too.

But then his past would creep up behind him and grab him back, reminding him of who he was. How he could never be like the rest of them, not with what he had done. Not with whom he was what he had seen.

But he wasn't that person anymore. He had changed; he had had no choice but to change. So why did his past keep screwing things up for him when he tried to make something of himself? He couldn't take it anymore. Now he was at risk of losing his job because of it. He had to end it.

He turned into an alleyway; a woman leaned up against the wall ahead. She turned her head in his direction as he entered. She was wearing knee high boots, a red mini skirt and a revealing black top. She was a hooker. David decided to keep going, he wasn't going to turn around and head out just because of her.

"Hey handsome." She said as he walked past her. "Looking for a good time?"

"No." David said without missing a beat and continued on. He had never been with a prostitute, and he didn't intend to either. He walked out of the alleyway and out into the next street. A group of teenagers carrying alcohol bottles walked past him. A few of them stopped and looked at him grinning. A few of them laughed.

"What?" David snapped at them. Some laughed loud as if they saw him as no threat. They had no idea he was, but they felt safe in their pathetic little group. In their pack, just like he had been. Animals, he though One of them walked up to him.

"You got a problem?" He said, trying to tower above David, and failing miserably.

"Yeah," David said. "I don't need your sorry asses laughing at me like that."

"Oh yeah?" He said, getting another laugh from his friends. "Well maybe if your face wasn't so funny to laugh at we wouldn't be laughing at you." His friends laughed again, all of them. An exaggerated laugh, one meant to humiliate David and prove them as the more dominant beings. David snapped.

He grabbed the one in front of him and punched him powerfully in the nose, breaking it. The man staggered back and David pushed him back, against the wall of a building jamming his arm under his neck, choking him and drew back his hand again for another punch.

He suddenly stopped, looking into the young man's eyes. He saw fear in them, fear for his life. David had seen that look before, and it hit him hard. He dropped the man and staggered back in shock at what he just did as he the man slid to the ground.

His friends ran to him and helped him up, yelling abuse at David. "You bastard!" One yelled. "Becky call the cops!" he said looking at one of the girls. "We're gonna get this fucker locked up!"

David turned and walked away, hearing their yells chase him. He didn't look back. They could call the cops if they wanted, it wouldn't make much difference. That was the final straw; they had set him off, and had almost killed one of them. This couldn't go any further. He wouldn't let it.

He was going to end it, tonight. He'd have a drink first, and then he'd end it. But first, he needed to get something.

A/N: Okay, shorter chapter than the last one, but I'm trying to make things move along a bit faster. I'm uploading this one along with the outbreak chapter because I think that having them come in instalments like this makes it seem to take longer than it actually, whereas in a book it doesn't. So hopefully this'll please those waiting for the zombies.

About David: I writing David a bit extreme right now because it ties in with a storyline I have planned for David later in the story. He's going to do something a bit radical in the next chapter but it's to set up the journey his character goes through. He's still going to be the same kick ass David we know from the game.

Also to answer the person who reviewed about Yoko (sorry I can't find your name right now), Greg says it's been two years since she worked with Umbrella in the last chapter of Outbreak 1. He also says she wouldn't know that, so that leads me to believe that her memory was wiped. Plus everything she says gives me that impression. Also my fic my rules, plus I like that story for her. Don't know why she still had the key card though. Oh yeah and I wasn't hinting at a Will and Cindy thing, Will's just meant to be a nice guy.


	6. Outbreak

**Chapter Six: Outbreak**

George didn't want to go home. Home was where Kat was supposed to be. But now she wasn't there, she was over at her sisters. Now his home was empty, he would be alone in it. He couldn't face that. He couldn't go home yet.

And so he now found himself opening the door to J's bar. Maybe he would get drunk, anything to take away the pain he was feeling. He walked over to the bar, noting the lack of usual people that was there. There was usually around forty all crammed into the bar, now there was less than twenty. And there were only two members of staff on today.

He sat at the stool next to the bar. The jukebox at the back was playing some kind of heavy metal music, but George barely heard it. He wasn't a fan of heavy metal music at the best of times, much less now. He saw two security guards over to his left, both eating something or other.

The waitress walked up to him with her usual bright smile, which amazed George that she could pull it off as she looked more tired than he did. "What can I get you?" She asked.

"Scotch." George said, "Make it a double." His eyes fell to the wood on the bar as she walked away to get his drink. Drowning his sorrows felt like a pleasant short term alternative, even though it wouldn't actually do him any good except give him one hell of a hang over in the morning.

"Cheer up." He heard the waitress say as she returned with his drink. He looked up and almost found himself hating that smile that she was wearing.

"After the day I've had that's not going to be so easy." George said handing over a ten dollar bill.

"Okay." She said and walked over to the register. The music died down and he was able to hear the television now. It was reporting on the number of car accidents the city had received that morning. It was nothing George hadn't had heard already. He'd had to deal with the people in those accidents.

He guessed the cause of it had been that illness that had been going around. The same one he'd seen in the Petri dish. He still didn't know what it was or where it had come from. It was probably a new strain of something. He shuddered mentally at the thought of what an outbreak of some kind of virus would do to the city, much less one that was new.

He'd spent most of the day trying to figure out what this new virus thing was; he had been prepared all night to work on it, as much to escape from having to go to an empty house than to actually find out what it was.

But the nurses had basically forced him to go home, saying they and the night staff could handle it. He hadn't thought about it before, but if this was a new strain of virus, not only would the amount of infected being admitted put massive strain on the hospital, but the sheer amount of people who would think they had the virus would be even worse. There were enough hypochondriacs at the hospital without a new virus making it worse.

He looked up seeing that the waitress was taking away one of the security guard's food, the other one was still lazily eating. Suddenly she jumped and one of the glasses slid off of the tray she was carrying and shattered on the floor.

George looked over as the guards did and saw a rat run past the waitress and bolt straight out of the open door. Will quickly ran over to the door and closed it after it had left, then turned to the waitress.

"You okay Cindy?" He asked the waitress as he walked over to her. She was now scooping pieces of glass onto the tray she had.

"Yeah." She said. "How did it get in here? That's never happened before."

"I don't know." Said Will as he helped her put the pieces back onto the tray.

George looked on equally confused. What the hell was a rat doing in here? There was no reason for it to be; the place was up to code on the health inspection. Plus there were never any rats in any bar George had been to; wouldn't they normally be in the kitchen or something?

He went back to his drink pondering the question, but really using it as an escape from his problems. Little did he know they were about to get a lot worse.

XXX

Once the music finished David stood up from the bar. He turned and headed for the bathroom. There was only one thing left to do now. The music had been his last gift to himself, a departing memo.

The song had been Metallica, Die Die my Darling. Ironic, but it had always been one of his favourites, plus it was how he felt to most of society at that moment. Now that it had finished, so had he.

The added weight to his toolbox reminded him of his task at hand as he walked into the male bathroom. He closed the door behind him, checking to make sure no one else was in. There wasn't, though there would be in a few minutes.

He walked past the empty cubicles, noticing how bare they were, like he felt right now. He stood in front of the sinks and looked into the mirror, looking at himself.

He saw someone on the edge looking back at him, someone who couldn't get a break. Forever haunted by his youth, back when he had been a delinquent kid. He had paid for it then, and he was still paying for it now.

They had been right; all those who said he would never be accepted back into society. Those who said he wouldn't last two years. Those who had constantly put him down inside and told him what a scourge to society he was. They had been right.

He lowered his hand, resting it on the buckle to his toolbox. This was the way it had to be. He slid the buckle off and slithered his hand inside, touching the cold steel of the nine millimetre resting next to his tools.

He had contacts within the city, and for a price, they were more than happy to let him get his hands on any kind of weapon. What had shocked him at first was that they had sought him out as soon as he had moved to Raccoon. The criminal Underground had been talking, and apparently David King had been a sought after customer.

With his track record he couldn't blame them for looking him up. At the time he had told them right where to go, and he hadn't exactly been nice about it either. But nonetheless they had been all smiles when David had gone to them just thirty minutes ago. It had cost him pretty much all of his month's wages, but that didn't matter anymore, and it hadn't been much anyway. He hadn't even managed to make much that month.

He raised the gun out of his box. It felt a lot heavier than they used to. But it was probably a new make, different from the ones he had used when he ran around with that dumbass gang, and then there was the kid.

David forced that memory from his head before it had time to manifest. He didn't want to face it; he didn't think he could either.

Most of the gang now were either dead, or still inside. They deserved what they had got, and he was no different. He had run with the pack, flown with the crows. And now, he was going to get shot with the crows.

He raised the gun and thumbed the safety off. This was it, no turning back now. He raised it higher, until he reached his temple, and placed the nuzzle against it. He looked in the mirror again, and saw a broken man who was giving up. He cocked back the hammer.

His finger closed around the trigger and he took a deep breath. It was time. His memories came back in full force right now, though he managed to hold back the child. He remembered what the juvenile facility had been like. He heard his parents talking to him at the visiting table.

_We're leaving David,_ his father had sad while his mother hid her face and sobbed. _We're leaving tonight, we can't tell you where we're going, only that you won't see us again. _

David's eyes started to water as he remembered the hurtful memory.

_We gave you countless chances to change, and you blew them all. _His father had said again. _And now because of you they're after us. You've endangered your own family through this. I'm ashamed to call you my son._

With that they had left, leaving David bawling and begging them not to leave. They hadn't listened, and the incident had made him a laughing stock with the rest of the inmates. The guards hadn't been any better either. Deacan had been the worst.

He had made David feel even worse than his parents had. _It's your fault they left._ He had said. _Its miserable little shits like you that darken the world, if you think it's bad in here, just wait till you get out of here. You think anywhere will ever hire you with a criminal record? You think chicks dig the criminal thing? They don't, least not the smart ones. Only ones as retarded as you are do._

David hadn't paid much attention to him at the time, but after two years of that every day; his morale had weakened to the point where he actually believed everything the bastard had said.

He inhaled again, willing himself to push the trigger, knowing it was the only thing that could end the suffering he felt. Then he heard Deacan's voice in his head again.

_I knew you wouldn't make it. _He said. Y_ou're turning out like every other retarded little shit that gets out of here. Do us all a favour and hurry up. Smear your brains against the wall; they'll be more useful there than they ever could be anywhere else._

David inhaled again. And then he sighed, sagging his shoulders in defeat. "Fuck it." He said and dropped the gun into the trash can that was next to the sink. They were wrong, he was better than that. He was different.

_Or is it that you just don't have the balls to do it? _He heard Deacan say. Maybe that was a part of it. Or maybe it was all of it. Somehow he couldn't make himself pull that trigger. Why should he? Why should he suffer by their words? He was a changed man; he didn't have to answer to them.

Deacan had been a miserable old bastard who had no one in the world. David had no one either, but he didn't let anyone in. Maybe it was time for that to change.

He walked back over to the door and stepped back into the bar, nearly bumping into someone as he did.

"Sorry." Said the girl as she hurried to the female toilets. He turned his head and saw that it was Yoko, the girl from earlier. He shrugged and returned to his seat at the bar.

Maybe he'd just get hammered, or go back to that hooker. See if she was still up for some action. What he didn't know was that the hooker was getting action or a different kind at the moment in time.

He decided he'd order a whisky, hopefully he would get so hammered he wouldn't remember anything that happened that night.

XXX

Kevin pushed open the door to J's and stepped inside. He wasn't too sure if Will would be thrilled to see him again, but he decided he didn't care. After the day he'd just had, he needed a drink.

Fred had died, and now so had Charlie. He had just heard it as he left the station. It had been so unexpected; the last Kevin had heard he had been stable. He wasn't sure what had gone wrong, but something had.

He shouldn't have died from a bite in shoulder. Maybe the guy had rabies or something. Or aids, although he hadn't heard of aids or rabies making people do that or killing that quick. But then again he was no doctor.

As he approached the bar he saw Will look up and sigh, putting down the glass he was drying. Kevin knew what he was going to say. Maybe he was right, maybe Marvin was right too. Maybe it was time to stop. Then again he really did want a drink.

"Kevin look…" Will said as Kevin sat down at the bar. "After what happened last time I…" He trailed off and Kevin looked at him and nodded, resigning and deciding not to argue.

"Just give me a coke then." Kevin said and Will nodded. Marvin had been right; he couldn't go on like this. He had to at least cut down, otherwise he would get fired. He didn't actually consider himself an alcoholic, but he didn't exactly drink in moderation. Will walked back over and handed Kevin the glass of soda. "Put it on my tab will ya?" Kevin asked.

"Uh yeah…" Will said. "Your limit was reached and breached some time ago Kev."

_Ah you gotta be shitting me! _Kevin thought as he sighed and reached into his back pocket to pull out his change. This day just kept getting better. He handed the dollar fifty to Will and took a sip of the cold sugary drink.

He looked and saw another guy over the other side of the bar. His head was down over his whisky. He was dressed in some kind of beige jumpsuit, though Kevin assumed it probably wasn't a jumpsuit, since it was mostly only convicts who wore them.

The guy almost sensed Kevin's eyes on him and looked up. He stared at Kevin with a look that Kevin swore said _look away or I'll gut you_. "Sup?" Kevin said casually.

"Been better." The man said and returned to his drink. He looked awfully like that plumber the precinct had hired to fix the backed up toilet they had a few weeks back. Kevin had actually pitied that guy because about fifteen minutes before the plumber was to show up, Kevin had suddenly found himself in need of the nearest toilet, which just happened to be the backed up one. And it wasn't a number one he needed either.

Irons had called everyone up on that, asking who it had been. Kevin hadn't said anything, to anyone. He wasn't stupid enough. He wondered if it had been the same plumber who had to fish through it. It had brought a wry smile to Kevin's face at the time.

He looked around the bar noting the few people who were there. Two security guards were there, one watching the TV, and the other looked like he was sleeping on the bar next to his food. Maybe he'd had too much to drink.

Behind them was some guy in a suit looking more depressed than jumpsuit was. On another table was a couple talking to each other and another small group sitting on the next table.

That puzzle guy sat down at a barrel table by the window. He never ordered any alcohol, which always made Kevin wonder why he came here in the first place, then he realised that he was drinking a coke too and decided against it.

He usually had mental nicknames for the regular's at bars he went to. He figured he could do the same for J's. _Jumpsuit's an easy nickname for the whisky guy, hot legs for the waitress and the puzzle guy could be… _Kevin's mind drew a blank. He wasn't exactly the most imaginative guy in the world.

At the front the door opened and the same reporter who'd hassled him (and he'd equally hassled back) at the riot walked in. "Oh good god." Kevin mumbled trying to hide his face. He wasn't sure what would happen if she saw him there, only that it would be awkward after she brushed him off at the riot.

_Bitch face! _Kevin thought. He could call her that. Or hot bitch face. He looked up at the TV, which had just finished giving a report on the riot at the Umbrella centre and was now commenting on the football game.

"There was a disruption earlier at today's football match between the Raccoon Sharks and OldcourtThunders." Said a forty something news reporter sitting next to a twenty something news anchor. That had been a tactful choice. "Although the number of injured is not yet known, more than fifty law enforcement officers were called to the scene."

_Yeah and you should have seen the new chemical plant._ He thought as he looked up at them. That was a memory he'd like to forget. Those nut jobs with the wacky eyes. That was enough to give anyone nightmares.

Across the bar he saw the journalist, (was it Alison? Alessa? It didn't matter.) sit down at the barrel table opposite the puzzle nerd. She had a laptop with her and opened it up.

_What the hell? _Kevin thought. _Is this a social gathering all of a sudden? _People didn't go to bars to work on laptops, unless it was of those freaky arty nightclubs or something. They came to get wasted. At least that was what Kevin thought.

"Aren't you eating anything?"

Kevin turned to see the African American security guard nudging his friend in the shoulder. "Hey Bob? Where's your head at?"

"What?" The man, Bob, said in a gruff voice and raised his head to look at Mark. And as he did, a shiver ran down Kevin's spine.

Bobs looked like one of the attackers at the riot. He had the same pale complexion and circles were forming around his eyes.

"What did you say?" Bob said, but words came out like long moans than actual words. The guy looked ill, dead even.

Kevin was so focused on Bob he didn't even hear or notice the door slowly open. Or see the hunched figure stagger into the bar. He didn't see the confused expression on Will's face as he the man just stood there facing the floor. He heard the moan though. The same moan he'd heard so many times that day.

Kevin turned in his seat to look at the man. _Holy shit! _He thought. _It's one of those guys from the riot._ The same guy who had practically ripped Fred's throat out. The guy who had _killed _Fred. The same guy who tried to take a chunk out of him.

He continued looking at the man, knowing he should do something. But he couldn't. He couldn't move. He found himself paralysed as he looked at the long gash down the man's face, that looked infectious, and his eyes. His eyes, pale, lifeless eyes. He barely noticed that Will had walked around the bar and was now standing in front of the man looking at him.

"Hey?" Will said, "Are you okay?" This caught the man's attention and he looked up at Will, causing Will to gasp in horror at his eyes.

Suddenly there was a crash from the side. Both Kevin and Will turned to look and saw that Bob had now fallen off of his chair; the other security guard practically leapt off his seat, showing more energy Kevin would have thought for someone of his age and weight.

"Bob!" He yelled as he crouched over him. "Are you okay?" At the back of the room the man in the suit stood up. And then Will screamed.

Kevin turned just in time to see the white suited man lunge forward and clamp his jaws onto Will's neck. Will screamed as he struggled with him, stumbling backward. Blood started to drip down his neck, almost exciting the man more.

Somehow Kevin discovered his legs still worked and got off the stool, reflexively reaching for his .45. Others were screaming now in shock as the man tore a huge chunk of flesh away from Will's neck.

Will's legs gave out from under him and he fell to the floor, gurgling up blood and holding his neck in shock. The man persisted to chew on the flesh he now had in his mouth. Kevin raised his forty five and aimed it at the attacker.

"Don't move!" He yelled as loud as he could. People were getting up from their seats and running to the other side of the bar since the crazed attacker was now blocking the only exit out onto the street.

"Put your hands up!" Kevin yelled as the man started towards him. Kevin stood his ground as the man approached him, even though every instinct he had told him to run in other direction. "Get down on the ground!" Kevin yelled even though he knew somehow the man couldn't hear him.

"Just fucking shoot him!" Kevin recognised whose voice that was. It was bitch face. He hated people telling him how to do his job, even though she was right. He vaguely registered the fact the waitress and the guy in the suit had now dragged Will away from the man and aimed the gun at his leg.

Kevin fired, the shot taking the man straight in the knee. He had shot people before in the leg, once when a gun wacko had hijacked a car and Kevin and his unit were on the pursuit, and again when he had saved a girl from rape. But this was different, the guy wasn't human. He had a human body, but he wasn't human on the inside. He was possessed, like a demon. Kevin had never been one for religion, but he had never seen anyone like this before either.

The shot slowed the man slightly, but he didn't fall like anyone else would have. He looked up at Kevin revealing a mouth full of blood, and moaned. Kevin fired three straight rounds point blank into his chest. This time he went down.

Kevin took a few steps forward to the man he knew he had just killed without hesitation. No, not a man.

Over to the side he heard Will sputter as the waitress and the guy in the suit tried to help him. The man in the suit had since taken off his jacket and had it pressed to Will's neck.

"The wound is too deep." The man said. "We need an ambulance right away!"

"Yeah me too." Said the African American security guard, who still crouched over his friend. Kevin heard someone whip out a cell phone and hit the three buttons. Everyone in the bar was standing either behind him or to the side, everyone except for jumpsuit, who had remained seated throughout the whole affair.

"It says the lines busy!" Said a woman over to the side.

Suddenly something banged on the glass. Kevin twirled with his forty five and saw another man with half of his neck ripped out. He moaned against the glass smearing his blood on it.

Now people screamed again. Kevin looked past the man and saw more people all over the street. They were walking so slowly. Others were running past them. The screams got louder, and Kevin realised that the screams from inside had been joined by those outside. Another one jumped up the window, and another. Then all hell broke loose.

Another one appeared at the now open door and staggered in, grabbing one of the people in the group and biting into his shoulder. Now people started running all over the bar. Some of the group ran to the back, others ran for the door. Kevin saw one of them get one step out of the door before he was literally pounced upon by two more of them.

"We have to barricade the doors!" Kevin yelled, running forward and shooting the man who was biting the other in the back. The bullet went straight through his spine; a killing shot. But he didn't fall, he didn't even move. _What the fuck is wrong with them?_

Kevin realised he had no choice and grabbed the man by the shoulders and pulled him away from the other man and hauled him over to the door. He threw the man outside; as he did he caught a glimpse of the horror that was now on the streets.

People were running in every direction, being chased by slow moving attackers. Across the street one woman was grabbed and bitten in the arm by one of the attackers. She screamed and pulled her arm free. As she turned to run another attacker, a middle aged woman, lunged out of the shadows in front of her and knocked her to the ground, biting into her shoulder as she did so.

Another car came speeding down the street with three of them on the windshield. The driver couldn't see where he was going and ended up swerving and crashed straight into the woman and her attackers.

Kevin looked to the left and saw ten more of them heading towards the bar, drawn by him. He lowered his hand to pull to the door closed and saw the man who had just attempted to run from the bar lying on the ground with the two attackers on top of him.

They were eating him. They ripped chunks of his flesh out with their teeth and their hands. The man's screams cut through Kevin like a knife. He pulled the door shut.

He looked around for anything to stick in front of the doors, not even wondering how they were going to get Will or the security guard out of there. The journalist was standing next to him and pointed to the barrel tables.

"Those." She said pointing at them and ran over to them. Kevin followed her, and mentally decided to give her a less offensive nickname at a later date. Assuming they lived past the next five minutes.

As he grabbed one edge of the table he saw jumpsuit run over to the male bathroom. "Yeah thanks for the help buddy!" Kevin called after him as he disappeared inside. He supposed he really shouldn't blame him, it was basic survival instinct. But still the guy was a coward.

Together they moved the first table over to door. The first attacker reached it as they did and started banging against it. He turned, trying to focus on getting another table there when he looked down and saw the doctor remove his jacket from the now dead Will.

It was at that point Kevin realised that they had to get out as the doors would eventually give. Suddenly the window started to crack. Kevin ran over to the waitress, whose nametag he now saw read _Cindy._

"Is there any other way out of here?" Kevin said to her she stood up. The man in the suit had now walked over to the security guards and was looking at the sick one. Kevin guessed he was some kind of doctor.

"Um yes." She said looking amazingly more calm than he felt, and he was sure everyone else was. "The door at the back. It leads upstairs. There's a fire escape up there."

"Okay let's go!" Kevin said as the behind him the window smashed. He turned to see five of them start to claw their way through. People started panicking even more, one person even ran up to the door in a blind panic, reaching forward to pull the table free and escape.

"No!" Kevin yelled as he started to follow the man, but someone grabbed him from the side. He looked, and saw the guy in the white suit, who he had just shot. He was standing again, and now he wanted Kevin.

Kevin pushed against him as he snapped his neck forward to bite him. He placed his hand under his neck as before and tried to push him back, but he was off guard. He started to stumble back.

Off to the side he the panicked man opened the door and got jumped on by two more of the zombies. He realised in that moment that was what they were. He had just killed the man who at this precise moment was leaning down to bite him. He had seen enough movies to know what he was dealing with, and also to know that if he did bite him, he would die.

More zombies seemed to flood into the bar from the window and the now open door, attacking anyone close enough. The man lowered his head further, and Kevin knew in that second that he would die.

And then another gun shot echoed through the room and the zombie's head snapped back and he went limp against Kevin. Kevin stepped back and let the now fully dead corpse fall to the floor and looked around to see who his saviour was.

Then saw jumpsuit standing outside the bathroom with a smoking gun.

XXX

The second David had seen the group of zombies approach the window he knew he would need the gun. He had seen that guy walk in and rip out the bartender's throat and then take three shots to the chest.

He knew they were zombies, but couldn't believe it. They were works of fiction, how could they be real? He didn't know, but they were. And he needed a weapon. He had heard the cop yell at him as he ran into the bathroom, but had ignored him.

And now he saw gratitude in the cop's face, and David was glad that he had bought the gun after all.

"Thanks." The cop said as David walked up to him.

"Don't mention it." David said and looked at the window. There were now ten crawling over the glass. It tore at their stomachs but they didn't even notice. They didn't even notice when their intestines started falling out onto the floor.

"Jesus!" Said the cop, David found himself sharing the same though. "We have to get these people out of here!"

David walked forward and shot the closest one in the head. The cop did the same. Another scream shattered the room. They looked over and saw that the bartender was back alive, or as alive as he could be right now, and was biting a woman on the ankle.

The cop fired and shot him in the back of the head. The woman dragged her foot away and tried to run away in shock.

"Over here!" David turned and saw that the waitress was holding open the back door and ushering people over with her arms. The cop saw her too and headed over to her.

David looked over, and saw five survivors, including the subway worker, backing up against the corner away from the zombies. He shot the first one in the head and ran over to help them.

The two security guards were already over at the door at the back and were heading through, the cop guarding the door. He shot at a zombie that got too close.

David ran over to the group of five and shot at the other three zombies that were advancing on them. He didn't know how much ammo he had left, he needed to be careful. "Come on!" He said to them.

As he turned he came to face with five more zombies that were now blocking them from the door at the back. A shot rang out and one of them fell to the ground. "Shit!" David cursed.

He backed away along with the group. His eyes darted in every direction, looking for any means of escape. Then he saw the front door, and saw that there were no zombies at it. There were more coming from further down the street, but they were at least fifty feet away.

"Come on!" He yelled as he ran to the door, avoiding the four corpses that remained. He turned and noticed that there was another girl beside him with short black hair. He was sure he hadn't seen her before, but she looked familiar.

He saw the cop over at the door. He looked over at them and saw David.

"Just go!" David yelled as he ran out of the front door and out onto the street. He looked both ways, and saw that the zombies were a lot closer than he thought, but they could still dodge them. "This way!"

David ran over to the other side of the street and the six others followed him. Screams and moans erupted all around them as they ran into the chaos that had just gripped the city.

XXX

Kevin watched as the guy in the jumpsuit ran out of the door with a group of people and closed the door. He hoped they would be okay but right now he had to worry about himself and the others who had made it through.

"Is there a lock for this thing?" He asked Cindy, who was standing next to him. Behind her stood the two security guards, the doctor and the journalist.

"Yes." She nodded and stepped up to the lock with the key.

"That won't hold them for long." Kevin said as he moved over to the stairs. "We need to keep moving."

"I need to get Bob to a hospital." The security guard said. He was still supporting Bob, who looked like he didn't fully know what was going on. Kevin briefly wondered if that was a good thing for the guy.

"We will, just as soon as we get out of here." Kevin said. Behind him the zombies started banging against the door, making Cindy jump. More bangs preceded it and Kevin was definitely sure that the door wasn't going to hold. "Go, go!"

Nobody needed to be told twice and they all bolted up the stairs. Kevin lagged behind, as he was the only one with a weapon, he was the only one who could protect them.

"Here." Cindy said as she ran over to the window which overlooked the fire escape. It was a lot closer than Kevin thought it would have been

The wood on the door started to splinter and crack, and Kevin knew they were now into seconds. Suddenly glass shattered above him as the window was broken by a zombie on the fire escape. He heard Cindy scream and tried to aim to get a shot, but his view was blocked by the others.

He then saw the security guard take out his own gun and fire one shot at the unseen zombie.

_He had that gun the whole time? _Kevin thought. _Why didn't he use it earlier?_ He then realised that he had probably been too pre-occupied with his friend. The shot seemed to do the trick as he heard a body hit the floor. And then he heard more moans coming from the window.

"Jesus they're all over it!" Said the doctor. "We can't go out that way." Behind Kevin the door finally gave way and fell, allowing the zombies into the hallway.

"Move! Move!" Kevin yelled as he shot the first one in the head. He had only seen four when he closed the door, but now that number seemed to have tripled in the mere minute they must have had the door closed for.

He heard another shot from above, and also heard the sound of running footsteps. He dared a quick glance behind him and saw that the others had now run past the window and to the right where the stairs continued.

Kevin ran after them, taking the stairs three at a time. He reached the window for the fire escape and saw a zombie slumped over the window ledge. He leaned his head forward even as he heard the terrifying moans from behind him ascend up the stairs.

The doctor had been right; the fire escape was literally swarming with zombies. Kevin counted at least five of them on the fire escape, and another ten on the ground below it. There was no way to use it. The ones on the escape turned their dead faces to Kevin and started towards him.

He turned and headed back up the stairs, barely dodging the first zombie that followed them. He bounded up the rest of the stairs and found himself on the second floor landing. He looked down and saw the zombies turn the corner to follow him.

He ran forward and saw the others over to the left through an open door into the staff area. He ran over to them even as the journalist turned to him.

"There's no way out!" She said as he arrived. "It's a dead end!"

"Shit." Kevin said and glanced back to doorway where the zombies would appear after a second. He didn't think Cindy would have the key for the lock, and zombies would easily break it down without anything pressing against it.

He quickly looked around for something to barricade it with; even as he heard their footsteps touch on the wood flooring. Then he noticed the planks of wood lying on the counter next to the microwave. Right next to a nail gun. They could use the planks of wood to barricade the door.

He didn't really know what they were doing there, nor did he care. As long as they could prolong his life he was glad for them. Running over to them he then saw what they were being used for; several planks of wood were missing from the wooden floor. They must have been repairing them.

"Here!" He reached the planks of wood and nail gun and saw the security guard walk up to him. He had since placed his sick friend on the couch. "Hey I need your help with this."

"Right." He said, grabbing some planks and following Kevin as he ran around to the door.

"If we nail the planks to the door it'll slow them down for a while!" Kevin said even as he saw the first zombie round the corner and appeared in the doorway. Kevin slammed his full weight against the door, closing it. Cindy and the journalist ran over while the doctor leaned over Bob on the couch.

"Okay," Kevin said handing planks to Cindy and the journalist even as the security guard was placing one end of his plank against the door. "Put these against the door and nail them into the frame."

Suddenly the door buckled against the weight of the zombies on the other side. All four of them pushed back against it. The mass of corpses on the other side was winning and started to edge the door open.

Kevin pushed back against the door as hard as he could, but it was still not enough. He could hear them moaning on the other side. One of them shoved its head through the gap in the doorway and snarled at them.

Raising his gun, while keeping one hand on the planks of wood, he fired. It wasn't that difficult to miss at that close range and he hit it in the eye. It fell limp against the door and got caught in it as they continued to push, preventing them from pushing further.

He edged over to the side of the door, being careful not to take his weight off it, and started to push the corpse through the gap. Another zombie reared forward behind it. Kevin dropped the wood and pushed with both hands against the dead zombie, pushing it against the live one behind him.

Finally it fell through to the other side, knocking a few of the other zombies back. The door snapped closed. The security guard immediately raised his first plank to the door with one hand and the raised the nail gun with the other. Cindy held the other end in place while he nailed the first side and moved over to her side.

The bangs started again on the door. Kevin held his weight against it as Cindy and the guard went onto the second plank and started nailing it in place. He met eyes with the journalist – Alyssa! That was her name – and saw her look back at him expressionless. Kevin smiled at her and she looked away rolling her eyes.

"That should do it." The guard said as he nailed the third one in place. Kevin let his weight off the door as the guard went to nail a fourth board in place. But he was right; the first three were now supporting the weight of the zombies. For now at least; Kevin knew it wouldn't hold very long. They had a few minutes max.

"Okay." He said walking back into the seating area. "Is everyone okay?"

"This man needs immediate medical attention." The doctor said standing up.

"Okay." Kevin said. "What's your name?"

"Uh George." The man said. Kevin figured he should at least learn everyone's names, it would make things simpler.

"I'm Kevin." Kevin said, hoping others would introduce themselves. Fortunately Cindy caught onto it.

"I'm Cindy." She said.

"Alyssa." Said the journalist as fast as she could, as if saying her name was a huge waste of her time.

"Mark." Said the security guard. "That there is Bob."

"How long has he been like this Mark?" Asked George.

"He's been ill all day." Mark replied. "Though it's got really bad in the last few hours."

"He seems to have the same symptoms as everyone else I've seen today." George said, leaning back over Bob.

"Symptoms?" Asked Alyssa. "What symptoms?"

George looked up at her and then stood back up. "I've seen many patients today who have displayed the same symptoms as this man. Now I can't say for sure, but I think these symptoms are the first stage of whatever has affected those people out there."

Another one of the zombies banged on the door, reminding them of their limited time. Kevin turned to Cindy, trying to ignore the burning questions in his head of whether or not Bob was going to become a zombie or not.

"Is there any other way out of here?" He said, looking around as if to check for himself.

"I don't know." She said to him. "The fire escape was the only sure way I knew to get out."

Kevin looked around the others, and realised they were looking to him for ideas. It made sense; he was the cop after all. Serve and protect and all that bullshit. What they didn't know was he had absolutely no clue. He had never been up here.

"Alright," He said turning away and looking back at the door. "We just need to find another way out. Maybe there's another fire escape." He walked over to the blue door at the side and tried it. It was locked.

"We don't have much time before they come through here." He said walking over to the next door.

"Does this place have a stockroom?" Mark asked.

"Huh?" Kevin asked.

"All bars have a stockroom either in the basement or the attic." Mark said to them. "There's usually another way out of the building in it." Kevin briefly wondered asking Mark how he knew this but decided against it. They didn't have time.

"Do you know where it is?" He asked turning to Cindy. She looked at the ground as she struggled to think. It was understandable giving the circumstances. There were walking corpses out to kill them after all. Kevin was finding that hard to believe himself.

"Yes!" She said suddenly. "Through that door." She pointed to the door that Kevin had already tried. "And it leads up to the roof. I don't know why I didn't think of it before."

"Okay." Kevin said walking up to the door and raising his gun at the lock. He turned his head back to the others. "Stand back, it could ricochet."

Everyone took a step away from the door and Kevin moved over to the side, making sure if it did ricochet, it would head away from them. He fired and hit the lock, shattering it. The door swung open to reveal a set of wooden stairs.

Suddenly there was a bang from the other door, the one that he hadn't checked. Everyone looked at it as the sound of something slid across it. "Is there anyone else up here?" Kevin asked.

Cindy looked at him in shock as the realisation suddenly hit her. "Jack. The owner. He spends all day up here." Kevin took a breath and started towards the door. He called back to the others as he did.

"Head up the stairs; I'll be right behind you." He heard them heading for the door, and heard the slower footsteps of Mark as he carried Bob. Kevin was suddenly aware that Mark was at more risk of being bitten than the rest of them since he was carrying the guy. If he turned while Mark was still carrying him, Mark would be the first one he'd go for.

"What are you doing?" Asked Alyssa, who was standing last in the line.

"The guy might still be alive." Kevin said looking back at her. "I have to check." Actually he already somehow knew what he would find as soon as he opened the door, but he had to look anyway. If there was someone alive back there and he had died because Kevin had been too scared to look, it would weigh on his conscience forever. Besides, it was his job to protect people.

The answer seemed to satisfy Alyssa as she walked over and headed up the stairs.

Kevin heard the thumps on the barricaded door intensify as he slowly approached the door. He reached out with his hand and grasped the doorknob. He listened for any movement. There wasn't any.

He turned the knob and edged the door open slightly. All he saw was a drinks cabinet and papers strewn on the floor. The drinks cabinet reminded Kevin how much he could go for a drink.

He pushed the door open further. He still didn't see anyone. He took a step into the room. There was a balcony that looked out onto the street. Screams were coming from all over it. But he still didn't see anyone.

He let the door close behind him – and suddenly Jack jumped onto his back. He had been behind the door the whole time. Kevin found himself falling forward as Jack tackled him to the ground. His gun slid from his hands. He managed to turn over and saw that Jack was indeed now dead.

A wave of nauseous rot swept over Kevin as jack breathed down on him. Kevin reached out with his hand to grab his gun while keeping Jack at bay with the other. His gun was too far out of reach.

His hand fell on something else – a whisky bottle. His hand closed around the neck and swung the bottle around, smashing it on Jack's head, dousing them both in whisky. The force caused Jack to roll off him and Kevin scrambled to the side and grabbed his gun.

Jack looked up at him and snarled as a bullet pierced his forehead and he fell back, dead again.

Kevin looked down at his whisky stained clothes, catching a whiff of the alcohol as he did. He ejected his now empty magazine and inserted his spare. It was his last now; he had to use it sparingly.

As he turned back to the door caught a glimpse of the street below him and found himself drawn to the balcony.

Zombies were swarming the streets, grabbing anyone they could find. Screams pierced the night sky along with gunshots. He could head sirens too, and see police cars move through the streets. Kevin found it difficult to tell which people were still people and which were zombies.

Someone tripped in the panic and fell to the ground. People ran past him and over him, stepping on him as they did, until a pair of hands grabbed his shoulder and hauled him up. The man turned to give his gratitude, and was promptly bitten in the face by the zombie that had grabbed him.

Kevin watched on helpless as zombies swarmed through the streets in search of the living. All hell had broken out in Raccoon City. The outbreak had just begun.

A/N: And there we have it, the outbreak chapter. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I know it's been a long time coming. All reviews on this are welcome and I'll try and update as soon as I get the next one written.


	7. A Hidden Agenda

**Chapter Seven: A Hidden Agenda**

The restaurant was quiet, the quiet autumn night adding to the mood, and Ada Wong relaxed. This was the way she preferred it, sure, she didn't really mind what the atmosphere was like anywhere she went, but she always preferred the quieter places. They made her feel more peaceful, preparing her for the operation to come.

She sat at a single table in the Apple Inn restaurant next to the window. Looking around she noticed very few people were down having dinner. Ada suspected they had all had dinner earlier, since it was now around nine O'clock in the evening. She hadn't meant to eat this late, she had just been busy.

Most of her day had been scoping out the city and finding a hotel to her taste. The trip was all expenses paid by her new boss as well, which pleased her thoroughly, but she still had a job to do, and Wesker wasn't the kind of man to be happy if you failed.

He had sought her out a few weeks ago, completely alone as well. Normally clients approached her via other means, either through her own contacts, or agencies she had worked with in the past. Being a freelance operative she really didn't have an actual employer, but only contacts she had built up over the years through the companies or the peoples she'd worked for.

But Wesker had found her completely on his own. At first she had though he was just some obnoxious prick who fancied his chances of scoring with her, which did happen a lot. The shades and gelled back hair had been her biggest reason to believe that. Until he had taken them off at least.

She had been sitting in a café in Spain when he had approached her. The first thing he had asked her was if she knew who he was. Ada had said she didn't, expecting to hear the same old set of lines she usually got from guys who fancied themselves. Lines like _I'm the guy with an eleven inch penis,_ or _I'm the rocker of world's. _The latter had always been her personal favourite as it had actually made her laugh at the time, but not in a good way.

But Wesker hadn't said any of those lines. Instead he then asked her if she knew about the Umbrella Corporation. Ada had said yes, of course, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who didn't. He then asked her more questions. That was when Ada realised he wasn't the usual yahoo, but she still couldn't place him, or what his motives were.

Looking back she supposed that was the way he liked to work. Unreadable, in control all the time. That had been her first theory about the way he always wore his shades, so no one could see what he was thinking. A constant poker face. Clever, in a way,

His next question was if she had heard of the incident a few months prior in Raccoon City. Ada had remembered briefly hearing about it but had said no. Wesker had then gone on to explain, in detail, every aspect of the Spencer mansion incident, Umbrella's involvement and the plot to destroy the special task force S.T.A.R.S. He had produced photographs of the mansion as well, along with pictures of every member of S.T.A.R.S., except for himself, that had been another clever thing he had done. He had even told her that the police chief was in on it.

"Why are you telling me this?" had been Ada's first question to him. He obviously wanted something; no one walked up to spies in café's and told them about a corporation who engaged in viral weaponry without a motive. She hadn't even believed his story at first; Umbrella wasn't the kind of Corporation to be involved in viral experiments, much less create a virus that turned people into zombies. They were in every aspect of life, even the face cream she was using, at the time at least.

"Because I want your assistance." Wesker said, as if saying 'help' was too weak for him to say.

"In what?" Ada said. There had been one vital detail he had left out of their current conversation, and the mansion incident, that she hadn't known about at the time, but would learn it soon enough.

"In changing the world." Had been Wesker's reply. "Something big is going to happen," He said, "And I want you to be on my side."

"Why should I?" Ada said, still not completely believing what he was saying. Yet, there was something about him, something that told her he wasn't a time waster. How else had he known where to find her, and who she was? Even though he hadn't actually said her name, she was sure he knew exactly who she was.

"The rewards will be fitting." Wesker said, "The pay generous, and at the end of it all, not only will you still be alive, you'll be in with the supreme power."

At this Ada laughed. So that was it? This nutjob was out for world domination. She continued laughing. He was just like the old cheesy bond villains, some rich kind with delusions of grandeur.

When she looked back at him his face hadn't even moved an inch. "So what?" She said, "You want world domination?"

This time it was Wesker's turn to laugh, a cold laugh that actually sent a shiver down Ada's spine. "Oh no." He said, and then he took off his sunglasses. "I'm planning something much bigger than that."

He looked up her, and it was all Ada could not to jump as she saw hsi eyes. They weren't human. They were yellow and red, like cat's eyes. Now she knew why he wore the sunglasses.

"What are you?" Ada said to him. Her opinion of this guy was rapidly changing. He wasn't some reckless yahoo, he was the real deal. He was radiating a sort of energy from himself now, one he hadn't had when he first arrived. He was in control. Then his next words shocked her.

"My name is Albert Wesker," He said, a small grin spreading on his face. "Leader of S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team, currently deceased." It had been just as well they were sitting in the corner and Wesker was facing the wall, because if anyone had heard them everything would have gone to pot. But then Wesker probably wouldn't have approached if she had been sitting anywhere else. He seemed like the kind of guy who would have everything planned out before hand; having control over it all. Control was a regular theme she was noticing with Wesker.

"And yet here I am." He continued. "Sitting here, in front of you in this dump of a coffee house." His smile widened. "But then again the dead do seem to have a habit of returning to life around Umbrella."

Ada didn't understand. She didn't know what to say. Wesker was supposed to be dead, but then she only had his word on that too. How was she to know anything about the supposed mansion incident had even happened? How did he have those eyes?

"Don't let these worry you too much." Wesker said, replacing his shades, making Ada feel slightly more comfortable. "It's a small price to pay for what I know have." Ada made no response to this. There was none she could think of. Wesker leaned forward in his chair and placed his hands on the table in front of him. He still kept his shades on, but Ada knew he was making eye contact. It still made her uneasy, and she was sure he knew it. The man was a master of his craft.

"One day before the mansion incident I injected myself with a virus developed by an Umbrella scientist called William Birkin." Wesker said. "William and I both worked for Umbrella during the early years of Raccoon City, back when it was just some backwater, spot on the map town. Umbrella helped make Raccoon City what it is now. But, working with Umbrella's Bio-weapons division comes at a price."

"What price?" Ada said.

"Let's just say most scientists within Umbrella don't die a natural death." Wesker said, a slight smile creeping onto his lips again. She had a feeling he had been responsible for a few of these unnatural endings himself.

"Anyway," he continued, "William and I both helped in the creation of the Tyrant virus, or the T-virus for short, which leaked in Spencer's mansion. But the scientist who originally created it…well let's just say he was hesitant about handing it over to Spencer. Long story short, his body is now lying at the bottom of the dam in the Arklay Mountains.

"After that William took over the research. During that time he's not only worked on the T-virus, but other viruses as well. One he created is called the G virus, short for Genetic. He calls it that because it can completely rewrite the genetic material of its hosts, thus making it able to heal at a far superior rate than the T-virus. He hasn't finished his work on it yet.

"And he's made another virus too. Made from the bases as the T and the G-viruses, but it has completely different effects. He hasn't named it yet."

"And that's what you injected yourself with?" Ada said, finally finding the words to speak. Wesker nodded.

"It stays dormant in your system for a while." He said, "Until you die. After that happens you awaken with…" he lowered his sunglasses slightly to let her see his eyes. "Greater powers." He pushes his shades back up. "Greater strength, agility, and healing. It gives you superhuman powers. Now, while William was making this virus, I received an offer from a new organisation, a rival of Umbrella's."

"Care to say which one?" Ada asked looking at him.

"Not yet." Wesker said, a sly smile creeping onto his face. "Be patient. This company wanted samples of Umbrella's work; the bio-weapons created, the T-Virus, and the Tyrant."

"You never mentioned that." Ada said, she felt like she was regaining her composure. She knew Wesker would get to the point soon. She had a fair idea what it would be, and she had a fair idea what her answer would be. This story was intriguing.

"It's Umbrella's greatest weapon." Wesker said, Ada thought she felt a sense of pride creep into his voice. "The greatest Biological weapon of all time. Not many people can become one, but we hope to change that in the future."

"People?" Ada said, somehow though, she wasn't as shocked as she thought she would be at the revelation that people were being experimented on in Umbrella's labs. "You mean people become these things?"

"People become lots of things around Umbrella." Wesker said, "Once I had collected all my samples I lured the S.T.A.R.S. into the Tyrant's lab. My original plan was for it to kill me in front of S.T.A.R.S., making them think I was dead, and for it then to kill them. Then I would awaken minutes later and set off the self destruct system…" Wesker trailed off, this was the first time Ada had seen a sense of something other than control during the conversation. It was as if the mere memory of what had happened was still haunting him.

"Something went wrong, didn't it?" Ada said. Wesker nodded.

"I underestimated the S.T.A.R.S." he said, Ada noticed he carried some form of reluctance admitting to it. "I managed to fool one member of S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team into working to me: Burton. I told him his family would be killed if he didn't comply with my orders. He overheard me talking to the S.T.A.R.S. in the lab and found out the truth. He came back and…caught me off guard."

Now Ada was beginning to understand him. Something had gone wrong because he had too much overconfidence. He believed he was in control of everything, and that had cost him. How much it had cost him, she didn't know yet.

"As a last resort I released the Tyrant and left the lab." He said. "I headed for the self destruct device and set a timer. But before I had time to set a proper time, I was attacked by bio-weapons inside the room." He paused for a moment, and Ada could tell he had his eyes closed, as is retelling this part of the story was a huge dent to his ego. "Then the Tyrant showed up, and before I had time to react it killed me. By the time I woke up again, the mansion was destroyed, along with the labs, and all of the samples. I had literally minutes to escape before the Umbrella clean-up crew arrived."

"They would know you double crossed them if they found you there." Ada said, more of a statement than a question.

"Yes." Wesker nodded. "Then I discovered S.T.A.R.S. had made it out of the mansion alive. I returned to HCF with nothing." Ada frowned at this; this was the first time Wesker had named the company he had crossed Umbrella for. She knew he had done it deliberately. She had heard of HCF as well, but so far they had remained a fairly small corporation. All they did was dabble in a few pharmaceutical goods like moisturiser and lotions. They were nowhere near as big as Umbrella was. Or maybe that was all a front. Maybe they were a lot bigger than they made themselves out to be and were putting on a small front to stay under Umbrella's radar as a rival.

"So that's my story." Wesker said. "That's what happened on the night of July 23rd in Raccoon Forest, and that's now why I've come to you." Now he was getting to the good bit. The foreplay was now over, now he would get to the point.

"William Birkin is still in Raccoon City." Wesker said, "And he has now informed me that he has completed work on the G-Virus. Umbrella also knows this, and they're starting to put pressure on him to deliver it. But he, like me, is now an agent of HCF, and is preparing to hand the virus over to them. All we need is a pick up."

"And that's where I come in I take it?" Ada said looking him straight in the eye. Her fear of him had faded slightly, now that she knew almost everything there was to know about him. He was human now, a man with a weakness. She felt as if she could see right through his sunglasses now.

Wesker felt it too, as he leaned forward and his tone became more authorative.

"Birkin is prepared to hand over the sample of the virus to a contact in the city in as little time as a few days." He said, "We're working against the clock here Miss Wong, Umbrella want this virus too, and it's only a matter of time before they come to claim it. If that happens we could lose everything. That's why I've come to you, wasting valuable time with small talk bullshit to get you up to speed. I want you to be the contact to meet Birkin and retrieve the sample. Are you up for the challenge?"

Ada already knew what her answer would be, and she sensed Wesker did too. Still though, there was nothing with being a bit playful over it. "And what happens if I say no?" Ada said, tiling her head slightly, a smile of her own spilling onto her face. With the information she had just gathered she could make millions and bring Umbrella, not to mention HCF and Wesker, down to their knees.

"You won't say that Miss Wong." Wesker said his face still emotionless. "I know this is the kind of job you won't pass up, that's why I chose you. We can offer you wealth beyond what anyone else could, more than what anyone would give you for the information you just acquired." He sighed slightly and leaned back in his chair. "Of course if you choose not to I could just let you go and hope you don't go running to any governments or papers with the news you just acquired, but then again Umbrella are fast on the cover-ups these days, and would have tarnished your story before it even hit the shelves." Another sly smile spread on his face. "Or I could just kill you."

This time Ada smiled as well. They both knew what her answer was, but for closure Ada leaned forward on the table. "I'm in." She said.

"Good." Said Wesker, immediately standing up from the table. "Follow me please."

He had then lead her out of the café and around two blocks of the city they were currently in. He didn't say a word as they travelled. Ada sensed he wasn't one for small talk, retelling the story of his own failure had probably been one of the hardest things he had ever done. She also had the feeling this was his way of trying to regain more control by keeping her in the dark slightly and therefore unaware of what the actual mission would entail.

After walking about two blocks he led her to a small apartment he was in. It didn't really look like the kind of place she would have expected a man like Wesker to be living in. The place was barely furnished, made mostly of wood floorings, it had a bed (which Ada didn't think he had even used), a table, and a few chairs. She guessed he was keeping a low profile, especially since he was technically supposed to be dead to Umbrella and the rest of the world.

He had then sat her down at the table and had pulled up a briefcase and laptop. He then began showing her layouts of the large underground lab complex beneath the streets of Raccoon. Ada was silently amazed they had managed to build it. The place was huge, with a generator that ran through a shaft connecting all the floors, and the various pieces of technology they had. The place must have cost billions and was no doubt a miracle of science.

Wesker then showed her pictures of William Birkin and his wife Annette – Wesker also told her that she didn't know of Williams involvement with HCF, stating that, combined with her own paranoiac tendencies, the whole thing would probably send her over the edge, and that William was working on a way to tell her. He also told her that they had a twelve year old girl, probably not the best decision in the world, especially since both parents were involved with making a virus which could bring the dead to life in hunger for the living. The child could be used as leverage if she fell into the wrong hands and, according to Wesker, her parents spent so little time with her they probably wouldn't notice she had been missing for a week until they would find out.

Wesker also produced photographs and files on the various bio-weapons currently contained in Birkin's lab, in case the worst should happen. There were some nasty ones. One had been a creature Wesker said was at the Spencer Mansion as well: the MA-121 or Hunter. Umbrella were apparently working on making them better.

Another had been the LA-254, which was apparently already superior to the 121's. The creature had a human body, but that was all it had. Its skin had been practically peeled away and its eyes removed. Part of its brain was also showing. But that wasn't the worst of it. The creature had this tongue that it could extend to well over a meter if it so desired. Coupled together with razor sharp claws and incredible agility to effortlessly leap off of the walls, the creature was more superior and powerful than the 121's.

However the fact that its brain was showing presented it with a weak spot. Wesker told her the creature could go down in one shot to the brain, just like the human carriers of the virus. Ada had been sure to keep a note of that in case she ever came up against one of them.

After briefing her on that Wesker had then showed her the rendezvous point on the map, telling her where Birkin would meet her: the marshalling yard directly above the laboratory complex. The place was disguised as a marshalling yard when in secret it was the main mode of transport underground for Umbrella's personnel in the Raccoon City labs. It wasn't used often though, as doing so would attract attention. There were other ways to gain access to the labs for other employees of Umbrella, but Wesker didn't know where they were.

After that Wesker had sent a message to Birkin via a Satellite phone. He said only the words "Be ready." And then ended the message. It didn't surprise her. Umbrella were probably tapping all the phone's in Birkin's complex, thus limiting what could be said. But the message was enough, and didn't give out enough for Umbrella to suspect much. Birkin had already known of the plans, he just needed to know when Wesker had found someone to carry out the mission. And now he did.

They were working against the clock now, and they both knew it. Within the next few days Wesker was scoping out the city, trying to find the best entry points. Ada would be working alone in the operation, as it would obviously be too dangerous for Wesker to be seen in the city. But he could be contacted at any time via a personal PDA device that was linked up via a satellite provided by HCF, further adding to Ada's theory that they were a lot bigger than they made themselves out to be.

Wesker managed to set her up in a hotel not too far from her destination in Raccoon City, the hotel had been her own choosing, of course. She arrived in town on the 23rd and checked into her room. Her mission was to be carried out on the 24th at 4am. She was used to late hour deals. Plus it meant fewer people would be around.

Wesker had only contacted her once since she had arrived, and that had been to make sure she arrived okay. His next scheduled contact with her would be at 6am, after she had attained the sample from Birkin.

And so now she found herself sitting at the restaurant of the Apple inn, at 9:15 pm on the 24th of September. Tonight was the night her deal with Birkin was to go down. She felt slightly apprehensive, mostly because she had never been involved in a job this big before. But she found herself being relaxed by the mood at the restaurant.

She liked having to calm her before her missions. It normally helped her perform better, especially since most of those missions ended up being a lot harder than she originally thought.

Her last mission had been to infiltrate an army base on the border of Kazakhstan and retrieve a data device vital to the victory of the opposition. The base had ended up being a lot harder to infiltrate than she imagined, mostly due to the fact that the people who hired were acting on old information and schematics.

It had been a temporary set back. She managed to infiltrate the facility, but then the shit had quite literally hit the fan. Unwillingly she had tripped one of the new security systems and had to stealthily sneak her way through the air vents and past the troops that had rushed to find her.

When she reached her destination there had been minimum resistance however, but she had been forced to neutralise one of the generals. It was still something she never got used to: killing. It was part of her job, but it still stayed with her. She always saw that as a good thing, as losing all remorse and humanity would just turn her into a machine, and she didn't want that.

Getting out had been equally as difficult, but she had been able to pull it off, and with minimum casualties. The mission had been a success, of course, it always was with her.

But this was something a lot bigger. It wasn't just two feuding countries trying to gain the upper hand on each other. This was something that could affect the planet, and if she, Wesker, and even Umbrella played their cards wrong, the world could turn into a very nasty place.

Looking up she saw a man standing at the bar in the next room. He was looking at her, and from the looks of it, he was pleased with what he saw. In a way she really couldn't blame him, the dress she was wearing wasn't exactly subtle; a thigh length red dress with black tights covering her legs. She liked to dress for the job, plus sometimes she needed to use her feministic charms to gain the upper hand in a situation

That was another thing she prided herself on, she could act like a dumb bimbo one minute, and shoot whoever had been stupid enough to fall for it the next. A femme fatale, in every sense of the name.

Looking back she knew the guy definitely fancied his chances with her as he was now approaching. _Great, _she thought sarcastically. She was in no mood for some jerk hitting on her, but she had to be subtle as they were technically in public.

"Hey," he said, sitting at the chair next to her, the word that had come from his lips was stretched for about three seconds longer than it should have been. Ada grimaced. "So what's a pretty girl like you doing all alone in a place like this?"

"None of your business." Ada said, trying her nicest to stave him off without resorting to threats. She hated this kind of guy; the _I can get any kind of woman I want _guy. The act didn't turn her on at all; in fact it repulsed her more so. She was almost tempted to reach in the handbag on the table and pull out the gun she had in it, but resisted the urge. The bag was to be used to carry the virus out of the city. Besides, she had another gun strapped to her thigh.

"Oh don't be like that." The man said, sliding ever so closer like the snake he was. "Being alone is no fun now is it?" He said, and then to Ada's shock, he began sliding his hand up her leg.

_That's it! _She moved her hand over to her other thigh and to her thigh holster. In one move she freed the gun from and pressed it right up against the man's crotch. The man suddenly stopped, feeling the barrel of the gun. A wry smile appeared on Ada's face and she leaned forward, almost seductively.

"Remove the hand," she said, "or I remove them." The man did as he was told, quickly moving his hand away and then stood up. He started walking away and looked back at her as he did so. Ada raised her hand to her mouth and blew him a kiss. This just made him walk all the more faster.

She had hoped she wouldn't have to threaten the man, but he had just pushed his luck too far. Slipping the gun back into its holster she saw someone else approach her from the side; a waiter. She looked up at him as he arrived, noticing he must have been no older than twenty, with short black hair.

"Are you ready to order?" He said.

"Yes." Ada said, having looked at the menu earlier, and before she even came to Raccoon City (something which had made Wesker raise his eyebrow at the time), she knew exactly what she was going to order. She opened her mouth to speak. Then the screams began.

The first one came from outside, distracting Ada from her order. She looked to her left and out of the window. Across the street a woman was being attacked by two men. At first Ada thought it was a mugging, since no idiot would be stupid enough to rape someone right in the middle of the street. And then of the men leaned forward and bit into her shoulder, causing her to scream louder.

Ada froze. It couldn't be. The virus couldn't have escaped; it was in tight lockdown in Birkin's lab. It could just be a bite out of anger, but somehow she knew better.

The second man leaned in and took a bite out of her as well, and they both forced her to the ground. Then the frenzy began.

Another shambling figure appeared across the street, and another, and then another. They all seemed to pour out of the alleyways, as if they had been waiting there, gathering their forces. She knew that thought was stupid since they had no reasoning power at all.

One of the figures was a woman, no older than twenty five by Ada's guess, and most of her face had been torn off. Glistening bone beneath shined through in the light from street lamp above her.

"Oh my god." The waiter said watching them. Ada didn't say anything, she just sat there, watching as the woman with half her face missing lunged at a man and tackled him to the ground.

The man struggled in shock, trying to shake her off. Other people moved towards them, all shambling, all dead. The first one reached the struggling pair and dropped to his knees, leaning over them. The second appeared, and then the third.

They all leaned over and lowered their heads to the man, who screamed louder than anyone Ada had ever heard scream before. Two more walked up to them and began to join in the feast. One bit into the man's throat and ripped it out, reducing his screams to frantic gurgles as blood flowed like a river from the man's throat and the attackers mouth.

The blood just seemed to entice them more, they started working themselves into frenzy, biting, chewing, ripping; any way they could get his flesh off his body they could.

"They're eating him!" The waiter said. "Oh my god what's wrong with them!?" Ada was almost glad she had heard of the virus and its effects on people, because she had no doubt she was seeing the effects of it right in front of her eyes. And therefore she knew what to do.

Suddenly another one appeared at the window she was looking out of, banging his smashed fists on it. The waiter screamed and backed away. She heard others scream as well looked around. There were carriers all over the windows of the restaurant, all banging and moaning against them.

Most had various injuries on their face and neck, but on others she could see no wounds whatsoever. Perhaps they had no visible injuries. Maybe they had contracted the virus some other way, and had become the first carriers.

She quickly stood up from her seat and headed for the door. As she reached the archway she heard glass breaking behind her. Turning she saw five carriers crawl their way through the glass at the table she had just been sitting at. A spike of glass tore into the face of a woman, but she didn't seem to notice. She crawled further forward, oblivious to the glass that proceeded to rip off half her face, exposing the white bone beneath.

Windows all over the restaurant were breaking now, allowing the carriers access into the restaurant. She saw the waiter back away slowly in shock at the corpses that were now making their way towards him. Ada looked on helplessly as three of them swarmed over him and he was dragged to the ground screaming.

He wasn't the only one screaming in pain now. One couple who had been sitting near the back were being attacked at their table. A woman was currently having her neck devoured by two carriers who chomped and chewed on it. Ada didn't know if she was still alive by now or not, but her husband (she assumed) was doing his best to try and pry the attackers off her, even though several more were coming up behind him.

With a sickening crunch the carriers bit through her bone and the woman's head rolled off her shoulders and onto the floor. The man leapt back in shock – straight into the arms of the carrier who was waiting right behind him.

Tearing her eyes away from the gruesome scene, she saw some people run into the bar, seeking reufge in any way from the attackers. Ada flinched inwardly as she knew that was the only entrance into the bar, besides the windows. There was a group of about ten carriers moving after the group who had run into the bar.

She heard glass shattering inside the bar, and then more screams and moans. She guessed they were at the windows in the bar as well. Those inside would be trapped with nowhere to run. They would be devoured where they stood with no way out except death, and if there were any survivors who managed to get out, she doubted they would escape unbitten. She briefly wondered if the man who had hit on her was still in there, then realised he must have been, as she hadn't seen him since he had retreated in there.

The carriers entered the bar and disappeared from her view. One second later the screams intensified. Looking around the restaurant she now saw there had to be at least fifteen virus carriers in the room, and most were making their way to her. Some were distracted by the people they had managed to drag down to the ground. Most were still screaming even as their intestines were being ripped out and eaten. At the back she saw another carrier eating the head of the decapitated woman.

Ada forced herself away from the slaughter in front of her and ran through to the man lobby. What few survivors there were from the restaurant ran with her. There was a panic in the lobby as well. Some people ran away from the main doors as some fled deeper into the hotel, seeking any sort of refuge.

"They're at the doors as well!" She heard a panicked man say.

"They're behind us too!" Said a survivor from the restaurant next to her. Another carrier appeared from around the corner that lead to the entrance. She hadn't heard the doors being broken down, and then realised that they were probably still open as they always were.

Ada ran into the middle of the lobby, getting a clear view of the main entrance. There was no way she could use it; a swarm of undead were making their way down the small hallway from the doors into the hall. They bottlenecked as they did, standing practically shoulder to shoulder. Trying to escape they way would be suicide.

She knew what she had to do. She had to get somewhere safe quickly so she could contact Wesker. He needed to be informed of the update. It would make getting the virus a hell of a lot harder, unless she wanted to extract it from one if the carriers, which was something she really didn't want to do.

Reaching to her left thigh she pulled the nine millimetre and ran for the door opposite the entrance. Her room was on the third floor, and from what Wesker had said about the carriers, and from what she had now seen, they were undeniably slow. She could reach her room and contact Wesker in enough time and then find a means of escape.

There was a crash behind her as she ran to the door. One of the workers guarding the reception had fallen to the floor. His face was deathly white and the circles were already forming under his eyes. The infection had claimed him.

Another hotel worker ran over to him, seemingly oblivious to the twenty plus carriers who were now in the lobby attacking anyone close enough. One man was over by the coffee table and couches as the undead shambled into the lobby. He tried to run around the other side, but found himself cut off by more carriers that had made their way around the sofa. His inability to act sooner cost him life as the undead swarmed over him and knocked him onto the couch, practically smothering him.

One carrier came up beside her, and looked like every stereotypical zombie she had ever seen before in a the movies. She raised her gun and shot him through the left side of his head before he had time to attack her. The zombie fell to the floor like a ton of bricks.

She then noticed that the hotel clerk who had fallen to the ground now opened his eyes, zombified, and turned on the man trying to help him, biting into his arm. As Ada turned to the door and opened it she briefly noticed she had been mentally calling the victims of the virus either carriers, undead or zombies. Technically it didn't matter what she called them, they were all dead. Carriers had been the term Wesker used for them and undead and zombies were both the normal names for these sorts of creatures.

Opening the door she noticed the first floor hallway was practically empty, but it wouldn't be for long. The windows lining the hall overlooked the small Apple Inn courtyard, which also was empty. She guessed the infection hadn't reached far yet.

Turning left she ran over to the stairs and started bounding up them three at a time. Her high heels protested the sudden surge in movement, but Ada had long since gotten used to it. She never felt the pain any more.

As she reached the second floor she heard the screams again coming from below. The zombies had obviously breached the hallway. She decided now was as good a time as any and reached back to her thigh and grabbed the PDA device. She started running up the stairs to the third floor as she hit the call button. Wesker's was the only PDA her one was linked up to, so the only person she could call on it, which was all that was needed.

As she reached the third floor the screen flickered to life revealing the image of Wesker sitting in a dark room. She couldn't see anything behind him, but he probably wanted it like that. He still wore those damn shades. Always with the secrecy.

"What is it?" He asked as soon as he saw her. Wesker's PDA was linked up to a larger system so technically, he didn't have to talk to her via another PDA, he just had to look into a big screen. Convenient for some.

"It's the G-virus." Ada said as she ran along the hallway to her room, fishing for her key with her spare hand in her bag. "It's loose." She reached the door to her room and inserted the key into the lock.

"Are you sure?" Wesker said. As she turned the key in the lock a blood curdling scream floated all the way up the stairs and into the hall. She didn't see Wesker react, but she knew that would answer his question.

"Definitely." She said as she opened the door and walked into her room, closing the door behind her. It was one of the better rooms in the Apple Inn, a large double bed, television and separate bathroom and shower. There was also a wardrobe and bedside table. It wasn't best she'd ever been in, but it wasn't the worst either.

"This could present a problem." Wesker said. _No shit! _Ada though as she locked the door behind her and slipped the key back into her bag. "Do you wish an extraction?" This surprised her; she hadn't thought Wesker would say that. Did she really need one? Did she want one? This was the last good chance they would really get to retrieve the virus.

"No." She said, looking down at him through the screen. "I can still do this." She said, hoping he believed her more than she did. She had been in tough missions in the past, but this was several degrees worse than those. Wesker seemed to agree, either that or she was expendable to him and it didn't matter if she lived or died. She silently thought the latter was more likely.

"Very well," Wesker said, "But we are going to have to change our plans." He looked down at his arm rest on his chair, and then she realised he was hitting buttons on it. The chair was a lot more hi-tech than she first thought. Again with the mystery that was Wesker. "If the virus has escaped it is more than likely that Umbrella has tried to attain it from Birkin. If this is the case there a high percent that he has been neutralised, alone with Annette. The best solution is to lay low for now. Wait until the worst of the virus passes your location, and then make for the marshalling yard when things die down a bit."

Ada nodded. "Okay." She said. This would make the mission a lot harder than originally though, but it wasn't impossible. If she stayed hidden while and let the worst of the infection pass, she could still pull it off.

"Contact me when you reach the marshalling yard or if anything else comes up." Wesker said and his image winked out. Now she was alone again. Outside the door she could hear the screams getting closer. She didn't how long it would take the carriers to arrive.

Quickly she ran over to the wardrobe next to her bed and started pulling it towards the door. She needed to barricade the door if she was going to survive this first wave. The wardrobe was lighter than she expected, probably due to the fact that she hadn't unpacked yet. She moved it in front of the door, completely blocking it from her view.

She then moved over to the table and moved that against the wardrobe, adding the extra weight to her barricade. She moved the bedside tables along with it. She briefly wondered if she should move the bed over as well.

Outside she heard footsteps running past her room. Moaning could be heard further down the hall. That answered her question for her. She couldn't risk moving it right now, doing so would make too much noise, and she wanted to remain hidden.

She didn't think the carriers would be able to sense she was in there, if she stayed hidden and silent, they would hopefully just pass her by. She sat down on her bed and started focusing on drowning out the moans and screams.

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A/N: Okay that's the next chapter. Sorry for not continuing completely with the survivors, but I always wanted to have Ada in this, showing how she survived and tried to carry out her mission until the 29th, when Leon arrives. Thanks for all the reviews so far, and oh yeah, I meant to say Yoko was Japanese; it must have been a mistake a missed while proofreading it.

On the topic of proofreaders, I could kind of use one right now. So if anyone feels like they'd be up to the job and would like to proofread chapters before I post them please put your name forward. Thanks.

Also I changed a few things about Wesker's report because I always liked Jill's ending better and you never see Wesker die in that one (except for the original) so I took an example from S.D. Perry on how Wesker died. And I've made it so that the G-Virus is loose in Raccoon instead of the T-Virus. On the back of the RE2 box it says "A new virus runs rampant", which I assume would be G, but then in outbreak and the others it gets called the T-Virus, so I'm making it simpler and just saying that it's the G-Virus that gets loose.


	8. A Desperate Escape

**Chapter Eight: A Desperate Escape**

All around her people screamed, and still Yoko kept running. It was all she could do to keep running, but even that didn't seem to do much good; the zombies still caught them. There had been seven of them when they ran out of J's bar, now there were four.

A man with glasses had been the first to go; one of them had fallen out of a window directly above him, knocking him over. It hadn't killed him, but the zombies right behind him had. She still wasn't sure if he had finally stopped screaming, if he had gone out of earshot, or if she had drowned out screams.

A woman in a checked shirt had gone next, crushed as an out of control car smashed her into a wall. The driver inside the car had been in the process of having his throat ripped out and hadn't seen her. An obese man had been the next to go. The zombies had come at him from the side when he had doubled over panting. He had been defenceless. In a way, his weight had been his end, causing him to double over and giving their attackers a clear shot at their target.

She didn't know where she was going; she just kept following the others. The plumber, David, was still in front running, almost distancing himself from them. It almost seemed like he wasn't leading them anywhere, he was just trying to save his own skin and they were people who just followed him.

She wondered if he had recognised her from earlier. She was still wearing the same clothes she had worn when he was in her dorm. She doubted it though, she had been shocked herself when she looked in the mirror in the bathroom at her own transformation. That was just one of many out of character turns that had been plaguing her recently.

It had all started with the dreams. At first they were nothing and she had ignored them, but they had started to get worse over the following weeks, developing into nightmares. They were always so vivid as well, as if they were real, like they had really happened during her life.

The worst one had been just a few nights ago: she was walking through some sort of laboratory, she didn't know where or why, but she was. The strange thing was that it seemed so familiar, like the weirdest dejavu she had ever experienced. She knew exactly where she was going and where each hallway lead. Sure, other dreams in the past had been like that, where her mind made it up as she went along, but this was different, it wasn't something she was making up; she _knew_ this place.

She had then walked into a room. It was dark, the only light coming in was the light behind her, and she knew something was there. She could hear it breathing. Snorting and clucking. She had instinctively reached over and flicked on a light switch (again, she knew exactly where it was), and had screamed at what she saw.

The light had illuminated a monster, a demon almost. It was reptilian with sharp, piercing eyes and fangs that looked like they could rip a person to shreds. Even longer claws adorned its arms, further asserting its lethalness. The creature threw its head back and screamed a scream that pierced her into her very soul. She wanted to leave, she _had _to leave.

She turned, and gasped at what she saw. In front of her was a mirror, and she could see herself in it, but it wasn't her. She had short hair and no glasses in the reflection. Raising her hand she felt the short strands of black hair, unable to believe what she was seeing. It was an impostor, it wasn't her. And yet it was. It was a version of herself she knew all to well, as if it was really her. As if the reflection in the mirror was the real representation of her, and she was the impostor looking at it.

It stirred some kind of feeling inside of her, she couldn't understand it, but it was almost like she was remembering something. She had woke up right after that, and still the feeling was there, like there was something buried deep down inside of her that she didn't know. A deadly secret she was shielded against.

But she felt different, like she was a fake. Like she had just awoken from a deep sleep to discover who she really was. It made no sense, and yet it made perfect sense. Her conscious mind was telling her it was ridiculous, and another part, a smaller voice in the back of her head, told her it was all true, and wanted her to find out more. It wanted to return to what it was, and the dreams were just the tip of the iceberg.

She couldn't explain it, not to herself or to anyone. She felt fake, like she was living a lie. It confused and angered her, angered her because she had no idea what was going on. But somehow she knew, she knew she had to return to who she was. It sounded ridiculous in her head, but she had to do it. The first step would be to cut her hair and remove her glasses, just like the reflection in the dream. Maybe then she could unlock another piece of this insane puzzle.

It sounded so insane she couldn't justify it, and she wouldn't dare tell it to Charlene. She would probably think Yoko was having a nervous breakdown. Maybe she was, but even so, she waited until Charlene had left town to do it. She had been familiar with J's, she and a few of the girls from the campus had gone there on a few nights out, and she knew some of the staff there too.

She had headed straight for the bathroom and had checked to make sure no one else was in there, which there hadn't been, not many people had been that night. First she had put her contact lenses in. She had always had a few pairs but had never enjoyed wearing them much, but right now she was willing to give it another try.

She had then removed a pair of scissors from her bag, ones from her dorm as well, and had begun to cut her hair. She had no idea what she was doing, but she kept at it. Hairs fell to the floor in uneven chunks, a hairdresser's worst nightmare. At one point she feared she would destroy it beyond repair, but as she kept going it began to take on a form, the same one from her dream, from her memories.

She stopped and let the scissors fall from her hands onto the floor. She stared at her new reflection in the mirror, drowning out everything else. It was so familiar, she could feel it. Something inside her jumped at the vision of it, as if the feelings of an old life were trying to break through to her again.

She tried, tried to remember what it was that her brain wanted her to remember. She didn't even hear the screams start in the main bar when the zombie bit into Will. She didn't even hear the commotion as people started running; all she could do was focus on her face. A stranger she'd somehow known all her life. It didn't make sense, none of it did.

Suddenly she heard a gunshot from the main bar, followed be another. She was jerked out of her trance and looked at the door. _What's going on? A heist? _If it was a robbery they would probably come looking for her and anyone else, unless they were amateurs.

She started to walk towards the door, running all the possible scenarios and outcomes through her mind as she did so. She could hide in the bathroom, but she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she could have been able to help people and they had been injured because of her cowardice. If they came to the bathroom looking for anyone else she could hide in a stall. _And do what? _She chided herself, _you're no martial artist, the best you could do is hit them with part of the toilet._

She reached out to touch the doorknob, still not sure what was going on, when the answer came from the back. A moan. She jumped and turned around, her back banging against the door in the process. If there were robbers out there, they'd know she was there now.

Another moan was heard, a long, almost hungry moan. There was another jolt from her stomach, but this wasn't a wretch or fear. It was the same jolt she got from looking at her reflection in the mirror, one of recognition. She had heard that moan before, somewhere, but she didn't know where.

There was a bang at the back, and then the sound of something metallic falling to the floor. She started to walk forward, even as every instinct in her body told her to run to the door and get the hell out of there. She had to know. She had to know how she knew of this.

She reached the last stall and looked around. The grating from a small vent at ground level had come off. Inside was darkness. Suddenly a hand shot out through the ventilation hole, causing her to jump back. A long, gurgling moan followed the pale hand as it searched around the air.

_A zombie! _Another jolt in her stomach. How did she know it was a zombie? Something inside her told her there was no denying it, but how did she know what it was?

Another gunshot rang out, and then another. Were there other zombies in the main bar? If so, she couldn't stay in the bathroom, she'd be trapped like a rat. She ran over to the door and swung it open and saw the chaos that had engulfed the bar.

A group of zombies were lurching in through the door, at least two people lay dead on the floor, whether they were zombies or victims she didn't know, but she recognised the uniform of one of them as a staff member. She saw a cop over by the back door, ushering people over and saw David from before running over to a group of people at the other side. They started running for the main door.

Yoko looked over at the back door, and saw that zombies now obscured her view of it. There was no way she could make it. Running on adrenaline she ran right behind one of the zombies close to the door and ran out onto the street with the group led by David.

And now she found herself running into an alleyway with the three other survivors. Finally, one of them stopped.

"Hold up." Said a man with short hair and a black shirt and blue jeans, he looked like he dressed for a casual night out. "I think we lost them." Yoko looked around at the other two; David, and the subway worker.

"No way man." Said the subway worker, "We gotta keep going. Those things are gonna be right on our asses in a few seconds and I seriously don't wanna die tonight." He looked around, "Especially in some piss stinkin' alley!"

The man in the shirt looked over to David, as Yoko noticed the alley did smell faintly of urine. "What do you think?"

"Why are you asking me?" David said, looking back at the man. The question took the man back; it took Yoko back as well.

"Well, you saved us back there and then lead us out here." The man said looking confused.

"Yeah, I saved you and got you out of the bar." David said, "And then I ran, I didn't ask you to follow. You chose to. I'm not leading anyone anywhere. If I see someone in danger that I can help, I'll help, but that's it. I'm not taking your lives into my hands."

The man didn't say anything; he didn't seem to be able to think about anything to say. Yoko hadn't thought about it like that, but it seemed everyone had just assumed that David would lead them to safety because he helped them at the bar, when in reality he was just a Good Samaritan.

"So what are you going to do?" The man asked. David shrugged.

"Get somewhere safe, find out what the hell is going on." He said, "There's gotta be cops somewhere." In the distance sirens could be heard along with screams. "You can all do what you want."

There was a crash behind them. All of them turned to see a group of zombies staggering up the street, knocking over trash cans as they went. David was already turning and started running up the alleyway away from the zombies.

"I'm going with you." Said the man.

"Me too." Said Yoko and both of them took off after David, leaving the subway worker standing there looking first to the zombies, and then back to them.

"Yo wait for me!" He said and sprinted after them.

XXX

Kevin bounded up the stairs three at a time. The zombies were right behind him. He had barely been able to dodge past them to get to the stairs. The door at the top was still open. He reached the top and ran through to the wine room, slamming the door shut behind him as he did so.

Up ahead he saw George look back around from the corner. "Run!" Kevin yelled, "They're right behind me!" George ran back around the corner a few seconds before Kevin reached it. Behind him the banging started.

The walls of the room were stocked with every kind of alcohol Kevin had ever seen; wine, beer, whisky, vodka, rum, tequila, and he even spotted a bottle of Absinthe as he ran past. In any other kind of circumstances, Kevin's dreams would have come true to be in this room, but if he stopped, he would probably die.

Another twenty yards ahead the room turned left again. Behind him he heard a crash as the door either broke or was opened. The hungry moans of the dead followed them around the corner to where the others were.

Cindy was desperately fitting a key into a lock on a metal shutter, Mark was still supporting Bob and Alyssa was standing in front of them. Kevin pulled out his auto and turned back to the corner. Already the plodding footsteps were getting closer. "As soon as that shutter opens," he said, "Go. I'll be right behind you."

"And what are you gonna do?" Said Alyssa walking up behind him. "Be a hero?" The last word was delivered with a scent of sarcasm.

"No, I'm gonna shoot them while covering your bitchy ass." Kevin said, "Or do you wanna die?" He saw her face turn red with anger as behind her Cindy raised the shutter. Mark and Bob started to walk through.

"I don't need you or any man to help me!" She snarled.

"Fine!" Kevin said, getting angry himself. What was her problem? "Then when the first lunges for you, I'll just let him take a chunk out of your throat!"

"Fi…" She stopped, sniffing and looking down at his vest. "Why do you smell of whisky?"

Kevin groaned, remembering the incident in Jack's room. "I had an accident."

"Yeah right!" Alyssa said as Cindy went through the shutter.

"One of them knocked me over!" Kevin yelled, "I smashed a bottle over his head."

"I'm sure." She said, not believing a word of it.

"I did!" Kevin yelled.

"Excuse me?" George piped up to their right. Both turned to face him.

"What!" They said simultaneously and not even noticing it.

"Hate to break this up," he said "But there is a walking corpse right behind you." He pointed tentatively with his finger behind them. Kevin turned and noticed that five of them had already rounded the corner and were heading towards them.

Kevin raised the .45 and shot the first one straight through the head. Behind him George headed for the shutter.

"Wow I've got Goosebumps." Alyssa remarked as she walked over to the shutter.

"You know what?" Kevin said lowering the gun, "Screw this!" He turned and ran over to the shutter, passing Alyssa, and ran under it. "I ain't helping you." He remarked back and started up a flight of stairs.

"Please," said Alyssa walking under the shutter. "Like I need your help." Once she had passed under it she reached up and started to pull it down, stopping the zombies right behind her. Kevin silently wished he had thought of that when he was going through.

Looking up he saw a landing with a door at the top. George was already opening the door. Kevin saw the night sky through it. "Must be the roof." He said as he continued up.

"Genius." Alyssa said brushing past him. The remark caused Kevin to raise his gun slightly, but he lowered it before could aim it at her, grunting in frustration as he did so.

The zombies started to bang on the shutter, but he didn't think they could lift it up. They didn't seem to be too smart. He reached the top and went through the door and emerged into the cool autumn night.

The stillness of the wind was juxtaposed by the heavy screams that came up all around them. They started forward along the winding rooftop. Walls of other parts of the bar and other buildings came up around them.

Kevin moved forward to stand at the front. He was a cop, and he felt duty bound to protect these people, no matter what Alyssa said. It was his job, and what he wanted to do.

Ten yards further they reached a break in the walls and Kevin the saw the mesh fencing that held the neon sign for J's in place. A police siren roared in the next street. He heard it turn the corner and drive into the street directly in front of J's, and then it stopped.

"Come on." Kevin said as he ran to the edge and looked down. Through the fencing he saw two other cars pull up alongside the other and cops started to get out. He saw Lenny Carlson get out of the closest car, followed by Dean Ackles. Cindy and George came up behind him. "Hey!" Kevin shouted down to them. "Lenny! Dean!" Below him both cops looked and saw him.

Behind Kevin Mark stood with Bob, still supporting him. Bob grunted and started to move out of Mark's hold. "Bob?" Mark said turning to look at him.

"I'm okay," he grunted, "I can stand." He started to push Mark off him. "Go see what's going on over there." Mark nodded and started to head over to Kevin. Bob looked over at his friend, his eyes starting to fill with tears. Slowly, he reached his hand down to where his gun was holstered.

"Kevin!" Called Lenny when he saw him. "Get down here will ya!"

Kevin nodded. "Okay!" He turned back to the others. And then he stopped, looking at Bob.

He wasn't looking at the gun Bob now had raised to his own head; he was looking at the shambling creature that was emerging from the shadows behind him with its arms outstretched.

"Bob watch out!" Kevin yelled reaching for his own gun. He was too late. Even as Bob turned his head and zombie grabbed hold of his shoulders and shot its mouth forward and bit deep into Bob's neck. "No!!"

He ran forward even as Bob fell to the floor with the zombie on top of him. He saw Mark behind him, moving faster than he ever could give him credit for. The sight of seeing his friend get bitten must have given him extra adrenaline. The zombie ripped a chunk out of Bob's neck and bit down and took out another chunk. Then Kevin reached it.

He brought his leg back and then swung it forward, kicking the creature under the chin and sending it toppling backwards in a heap. Behind him he saw Mark kneel down to Bob, and Kevin advanced on the zombie.

It started to get up again, now sporting a broken and bloody jaw. Kevin gritted his teeth in anger and fired. The shot flew through the air almost in slow motion to him, and splattered straight into the zombie's left eye, jerking its head back. The creature crumpled to the ground, but Kevin fired again. The second hit its head before it even hit the ground. He groaned in fury and fired again, hitting the creature in the nose.

He didn't even notice Cindy come up beside him until she put her hand over his and lowered the gun. Kevin just stood there, teeth gritted and breathing heavily, looking at the bloody mess that was now the zombie.

Bob gurgled behind him. He turned around to see that Mark was now on his knees, resting Bob's head on his lap. Blood now poured from Bob's neck and mouth. Kevin looked at him, feeling fury, sorrow, and guilt. Guilt that he had let this happen. He was cop, he was supposed to fucking protect them!

"Bob…" Mark chocked, placing a hand over Bob's neck as George leaned down. He pushed Mark's hand out of the way to look at the wound.

"It severed the jugular vein." He said shaking his head, "There's nothing I can do for him." Mark looked at him with desperate eyes, tears forming in them. "I'm sorry."

"I was dead anyway…"Bob said choking as he did so.

"No." Mark said as he started to cradle his old friend in his arms. "No."

"You don't…understand…" He said, choking on his own blood, "I feel…the hunger…I'm becoming…one of them." He started breathing heavily and faster, as if each motion was excruciating for him. "That's why I tried to…do it…damn bastard got me first." He let out a chuckle, though it came out no more than a wheeze.

"No, Bob, please no." Mark said, tears falling from his face onto Bob's. Kevin felt his own tear ducts starting to swell and tried to fight them back. "Please Bob, don't die." Mark pleaded. "Not like this."

"Sorry Mark…" Bob wheezed, "Time's up." He coughed once again, blood flying into the air. "Just do me…one thing…" He said looking up to Mark.

"What?" Mark said through tears.

"Whatever this is…" Bob said, struggling to breathe, "Make sure you survive." He started coughing more violently; the life was starting to leave him. "Live…"

"I will." Mark said, gripping Bob more tightly. "I will."

Bob's gaze dropped from Mark and he looked up at the sky. "Bye buddy…" He said as his last breath left him. His chest didn't rise again, and Kevin saw the light go out of his eyes.

He inhaled, fighting back the tears, but felt one slide down his cheek. He saw Alyssa turn and start to walk in his direction. He expected her to say something about him screwing up, but she didn't, she just walked past him and over to the mesh fencing.

Kevin looked down as Mark started to cradle Bob's dead body, rocking back and forth with it slightly. Kevin felt a stab of guilt in his stomach; this was his fault. He should have been paying attention. It was his goddamn job to look after people, and he'd fucked up.

There were a lot of screams echoing that night in Raccoon City, but Mark's ran out the loudest. "BOB!!!"

_A/N: Okay, long time no see again. Sorry it took so long but there's been a lot of factors that prevented my writing, a slight case of writer's block, I Am Legend (which I really liked, different from the book, but still good) AVP Requiem (crap I know but I still liked it), the general awesomeness that is the Wii, RE Umbrella Chronicles, social life, oh and of course, College work, which seems to be getting heavier as the year goes._

_I chose a proof reader close to home, it'd work a lot easier for me plus it means no sending E-mails or anything. Thanks to all those who volunteered. _

_Also if it ever seems that I leave this for a long time don't think I won't come back to it, as I said before I aim to see this through to the end. I'm just really busy and it's hard to fight time to set aside to write these chapters. _

_Anyway, hope ya enjoy. _


	9. Hell on Earth

Chapter Nine: Hell on Earth

**Chapter Nine: Hell on Earth**

"BOB!!" Mark yelled into the night. To his right he saw Cindy flinch at his outburst. He lowered his head and looked down at the corpse of what had once been his best friend, now reduced t a shadow of his former self.

He had seen death enough times in 'Nam to almost be immune to it. But it had never been someone he'd cared about as much as Bob. He'd seen his squad mates die in battle, but most of them he had either never gotten to know or they had hated him. There had been some he had liked, and he always felt a slight tinge of sorrow when they had died, but this was worse than that. He hadn't known those people very long; he had known Bob for over twenty years.

They had basically saved each others lives back in Vietnam and had forged a strong friendship that lasted ever since. They had fought against human adversaries with guns, and now Bob had been taken out by a walking corpse that had got the drop on him.

It wasn't fitting; Bob had deserved a more honourable death than to have his throat ripped out by some zombie. Less than thirty minutes ago he would have told you were crazy if you had said zombies, or the undead were real. Now…

"I'm sorry," Kevin said, stepping forward. "We can't wait here. There are cops on the street; they can take you to safety." Mark didn't want to acknowledge it, but he was right, they had to move. They had to get to safety and find out what was going on, and he had to find-

_Oh god! _He thought. _Teresa and Reese! _He had been running on adrenaline this whole time and focussing on helping Bob that they had completely slipped from his mind. A short wave a shame came over him at briefly forgetting them, but some part of him recognised that that was basic human survival.

But now with Bob dead, he had to get home. He couldn't risk losing all three of them in one night, he couldn't. If those zombies had attacked the house he prayed they got out in time, like he did. Both were smart, they would make sure of it.

"Yeah." He said, standing up from Bob. They had to move, he had to find his family, as well as comply with Bob's dying wish.

"Okay." Said Kevin, "That's a fire escape over there." He said, pointing to the far end of the rooftop. "Let's use that." He started walking towards it, Alyssa and Cindy followed him.

Mark crouched down to Bob one more time, and closed his friend's eyes with his fingers. He stood back up, wiping the final tears from his eyes. He saw George to his side.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Said the doctor. Mark started walking towards the others. George walked alongside him.

"Thanks." Mark said, as they headed over. Kevin was guarding their escape as Alyssa and Cindy started down the fire escape. Mark noticed Alyssa wasn't objecting this time. "Have you got any family out there?" Mark asked nodding towards the city.

"Yes…" George replied with a slight sigh. "My wife." They reached the fire escape and Mark started down, followed by George. "She's at her sister's right now…I have to find her."

"Yeah," Mark said as they stepped down. "My wife and kid are out there, and I'm terrified. Not for me, but for them. If anything's happened to them…" Mark trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. He didn't need to, George knew what he meant.

They continued down, reaching the first storey. A window lay open to him as he walked along the grating to the last flight of steps. Only darkness could be seen through the window, and Mark made a point of hurrying past it. The thought of something jumping out of the shadows and attacking him didn't seem very farfetched at that moment.

He started down the final flight of metal steps. He could see the back end of a squad car at the corner of the building. As they approached, the shots got louder.

XXX

Kevin raced down the stairs behind the others, making sure he could get a clear shot at anything that might try and attack them from the front. He made sure he was the last to go in case anything came from behind as well, like with Bob.

He couldn't afford to make another mistake like that. He had screwed up and cost a man his life.

_Snap out of it! _An inner voice said to him. _You heard him like everyone else; he was going to kill himself. You can't live or die on whether you save people or not._ The last sentence was something he remembered from back in his days as a cadet at the training academy.

_You can't save everyone,_ the speaker had said, _and if you start blaming yourself for deaths that aren't your fault, well there's only one place that can lead, and that's down. It will consume you, and eventually kill you._

The words had never runs truer to Kevin than right now. Bob's death hadn't been his fault, and if he didn't pull himself together someone else would die, and this time it would be his fault. He needed to be on his toes, if not, he would end up dead.

The group reached the bottom of the stairs and started running for the corner of the building where the squad car was and where Kevin knew Lenny and Dean were. Kevin turned the corner; and walked right into a war.

Chaos was everywhere; people fled in every available direction to escape their undead attackers. Four officers were visible in Kevin's immediate eyesight. Raymond and Paul were about twenty metres away, firing at a group of zombies that were advancing on them from down the street.

Max Fletcher and Eddie Finch were five metres ahead of them facing the opposite direction. Civilians ran past them desperately fleeing the undead masses that were charging after them.

Behind them a corpse that was lying on the road got up moaning, and lunged at them. Max yelled in shock as the undead creature grabbed onto his shoulder, teeth bared, and lunged in for a bite.

Or it would have, had Kevin not shot it in the back of the head, killing it. It was a one in a million shot, but that was what Kevin was best known for. He ran forward towards them, the group following. Max noticed him as he came.

"Kevin," He said, "Thank God. What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know." Kevin said and looked at the group of about ten zombies that were staggering towards them.

"They just won't die!" Eddie screamed as he fired another two shots into the stomach of one of the zombies.

"Aim for the head." Kevin said and turned back to Max. "What's our plan of action?"

"Man I have no idea." Max said firing a shot into the head of one of the zombies. "I have no idea what's going on."

"Kevin!"

Kevin turned and saw Raymond waving him forward. "Come on." Kevin said and started running towards him. The group followed as well as Max and Eddie. As he passed the broken door to J's he took a quick glance inside.

It was empty, the only signs that anything had taken place were the blood, broken glass and bodies of those that were truly dead. The zombies that had attacked were either upstairs or outside. The thought that they might still be inside the building sent a chill down his spine.

Over in the street directly opposite J's he saw Lenny and Dean desperately trying to hold off a group of around thirty zombies that were ambling towards them. They started to fall back as the creatures gained ground on them. He noticed a shotgun strapped to Lenny's back.

"Aim for the head!" He yelled at them. Lenny turned his head in Kevin's direction, and Kevin saw that his shirt was stained with blood. Whether it was from a bite or not he didn't know.

"What?" Lenny yelled barely audible over the gunshots and screams.

"Aim for the head!" Kevin yelled again. Lenny nodded and raised his handgun at the zombies and fired, narrowly missing the head of the closest. He looked back over to Raymond, and saw him, Paul and the others he had led from the bar. Zombies advanced from the streets and buildings, chaos was everywhere.

"What's our plan?" Kevin asked as he reached the squad car. Ahead of them was a group of about ten zombies spread out pretty far apart across the street. He saw people running around them and behind them. Running anywhere. Some weren't fast enough, or fell over and soon were set upon by the dead.

"Damned if I know." Raymond said, "But we gotta move fast. We'll be killed in a matter of minutes at this rate." Kevin found himself in full agreement. The zombies were coming from everywhere, and they were running out of time.

"All units report!" Came a call over the squad car radio. "Repeat all available units report!" Reaching in Kevin grabbed the radio.

"This is officer Ryman reporting." He said, behind him Raymond reached in and grabbed an assault shotgun out of the back seat. Other voices were coming through the radio as well. Voices Kevin recognised and they all sounded desperate.

"They're all around us!"

"They won't die!"

"HELP! Requesting back-up now! I repeat requesti-agh! Noo!"

"All units," Kevin said into the radio, "Shoot to kill. I repeat aim for the head; it seems to be the only way to bring them down."

"Copy that Kevin," Came another voice Kevin recognised. It was Elliot. "We have about five hundred of them all bundled into Main Street, we have them barricaded but we can't hold them for long!" Kevin's eyes widened at this. He hadn't even harboured a guess at how many of them there were, but the sudden realisation horrified him.

"Five hundred!?" Paul said in disbelief as he took a pot shot at another zombie.

"I repeat we have about five hundred barricaded into main street." Came Elliot's voice over the radio, "We need urgent reinforcements to hold them off."

"Copy that Elliot." Kevin said. "On our way."

He looked back up to Raymond. As he did a car came screeching around the corner at full speed. Kevin noticed at least three creatures clinging onto the car as it skidded around the corner. The car started to loose control and even although the driver applied the brakes, continued it's momentum and slid sideways into a building, crushing the zombie that was clinging on.

Kevin noticed the driver struggling inside as the other three zombies that still remained hauled themselves closer to the window. Kevin raised his gun to help along with Paul, but then he noticed the leak underneath the car, and the flames that were already erupting from the bonnet, and he knew in that moment there was nothing he could do.

"Get down!" Paul yelled as flung himself to the ground. Kevin did the same along with Raymond. He saw George duck behind the car along with Cindy and Alyssa. Mark leapt to the ground next to him.

Then there was a thundering crash and a wave of heat as the car exploded. The ground seemed to shake and then there was nothing. Everything went quiet; there was no sound, only heat. And then it all came thundering back. The screams were now joined by the sound of flames.

Kevin turned his head as the other started to look up. The car was no engulfed in flames. Kevin couldn't see the driver, and hoped it had been quick. He heard moaning to his right and saw a flaming figure come lurching towards them. He guessed it had been one of the zombies that were clinging onto the car.

The blast had blown away its left arm from the shoulder along with part of its mid section. It was put down by a shot from Paul. Kevin looked over at Raymond.

"What's the quickest way to main street?" He said. They would probably have to go on foot. The idea of trying to drive through this massacre didn't seem that appealing.

"There's a shortcut behind those apartments." Raymond said motioning to the apartment block across the road. "It runs by the canal. We can make it in ten minutes."

"Okay let's go!" He said and got up. He looked behind to see Lenny and Dean; and saw that the group of zombies had turned into an army. And they were closing in on them. Kevin yelled out to them. Lenny turned, hearing him.

"Come on!" Kevin yelled, motioning with his hand. Lenny nodded and unstrapped the shotgun from his back. The first blast hit three zombies, knocking them back. Dean took a few steps back while firing at others. He was a better shot than Lenny, but there was too many of them to handle.

Kevin looked behind him as the others started towards the apartment block; the car crash had cleared the immediate area of any zombies, making a temporary clear path to their destination. It wouldn't last though; he could already see the hordes about twenty feet away. They would have to be quick.

He looked back to Lenny and Dean, and saw that they were going to make it. They were holding them off while moving back. At this rate they were going to make it. They moved in front of J's bar and started passing the door.

Suddenly someone jumped from inside the bar out at them, and grabbed onto Lenny, biting into his shoulder.

"No!" Kevin screamed raising his gun. The zombies must have gone back down to the entrance, either that or the bodies he saw weren't as dead as he thought. Two more emerged from the bar and lunged at Lenny. Dean faltered with panic as he saw them. They obscured Lenny's attacker, preventing Kevin from getting a clear shot. He could still see Lenny, but not the zombie attacking him.

And then Lenny fell, tripping over a piece of debris behind him. He fell backwards, knocking over one the undead as he went. The shotgun was still in his hand, and discharged as he hit the ground. Dean fell. Kevin didn't see it at first, but the shotgun round took him in right leg, shattering the shin.

He fell with groan of agony as he landed on the ground. Kevin saw with horror as the zombies washed over both of them like a tide, smothering them and taking them, almost absorbing them into their masses.

"Kevin!"

He turned and saw Raymond at a wooden gate right linking two apartment blocks together. The doors were already open and the others were going through. Paul was standing just outside it taking shots at the zombies which had gotten closer.

He hadn't seen them, been too preoccupied with Dean and Lenny; they were now within reaching distance of him. He almost leaped back as the first one grabbed for him, and felt cold hands brush against his back from behind.

Ducking he turned and ran towards the gate. He sprinted for it, leaving the dead and screaming masses, including Dean and Lenny, behind.

The second he and Paul were through Raymond slammed the gate over again and slipped the latch back into place.

"That's not gonna hold them for long." He said, "Help me move something to block it."

He moved over to one of the dumpsters with Kevin. Mark, Alyssa and George ran to one of the ones opposite and started to push it as well. Paul stood guard scouring the rest of the alley. Kevin noticed Cindy standing looking around. She looked terrified, and he couldn't blame her. They could all die this night, everyone could. And then another series of questions hit Kevin.

_What if it's happening elsewhere? What if everywhere all over the world the same thing like this is happening? If so...is this the apocalypse...?_

He didn't know, and realised some part of him didn't want to know if it was the apocalypse or not. He'd never been a religious man, in fact a couple of times when asked what he would say if he ever met God his answer had been _What the hell were you smoking when you came up with mankind? _

He couldn't think about those kinds of things now. They were in danger and people were counting on him. At any rate, they would all find out later. If they lived that long.

A scream pieced the air. Kevin, Raymond and Mark turned raising their guns and aimed down the side alley. Nothing moved. There was nothing there. They alley had wooden gates at both ends, and the other one had been closed on their arrival. Sure, it was hard to hear much over the scream, but they surely would have heard the wood splintering if one had gotten through.

The scream came again, and they realised it was coming from above. They looked and saw an open window with a light on on the third floor. The scream came again, but he couldn't see anything.

Suddenly two figures came into view, and now Kevin understood what was happening. The woman in the apartment was being attacked by a zombie, perhaps someone she knew or lived with. Maybe a lover or friend, or a relative.

The figures struggled greatly against each other. None of them were able to get a clear shot. But they didn't need to.

Suddenly the woman lost her footing and fell backwards, dragging her attacker with her, straight through the open window and fell plummeting to the ground.

The seemed to fall in slow motion for Kevin as he watched them. They landed with a sickening crunch on the concrete below. Cindy screamed and looked away.

"Jesus Christ!" Screamed Alyssa as blood sprayed in all directions from the woman who had fallen underneath her attacker, his weight sandwiching her between him and the ground. Kevin noticed several chunks of flesh missing from the man's legs. He raised his head and looked up at them. His snarl was cut off by the bullet that tore through his head from Paul's gun.

"Come on." Raymond said, already starting to run down the alley. Kevin and the others took off after him. The gate was about fifty feet away from them down the other side. Kevin wasn't sure what lay past it; he just hoped it wasn't more zombies.

Behind them the gate started moving back and forth as the zombies began banging and pushing against it. Raymond was right, it wouldn't hold forever, but hopefully the dumpsters would buy them enough time.

There was a bang from above them. Kevin looked up and saw someone being shoved against a window by two attackers who proceeded to devour his neck. All three of them slid to the ground leaving long bloody trails against the window.

He wondered what it would be like to be trapped inside an apartment as the zombie's tore the door down. Knowing that there was no way out except to jump from the window, which would be suicide, but probably less painful than being devoured alive in your own home. Unless they had an attic to hide in there would be no escape, nothing they could do.

That was true horror, knowing there was no way out while they tore down doors to get you. All options would lead to death; there was no optimism for them, no way out alive. No escape. Kevin was silently glad he was outside.

Behind them he heard the wood splinter and break. They would get through soon. He dared a glance back at the gate.

Part of the gate had fallen away revealing what looked like a whole of zombies beyond it. They kept pushing against it, breaking other bits. The dumpsters started to give as well. They were running out of time.

"Move!" Kevin yelled, "Hurry!"

Another scream came from above him, and then got louder, heralding the arrival of one of the tenants. She hit the ground with a crack as her neck was snapped out of place. Blood flowed from a wound her neck. He looked up to see if her attacker would follow her down, but he couldn't see anyone.

Raymond reached the gate first and tried to open it. It wouldn't move. Kevin saw him pushing against it. _Oh no. _He thought. _Don't let us be trapped in here._

"Shit!" Raymond said as he pushed against the gate. "Something's blocking it. Help me!"

Cindy, Alyssa, George, Mark and Paul ran up to help him. Kevin looked back down the alley – and saw the zombies force the dumpsters out of the way and begin to almost charge down the alley towards them. Sure they were slow, but they were moving with a purpose.

"Hey Paul, Mark. Help me out here!" Kevin yelled back to them as he raised his gun. Both Mark and Paul ran back from the gate, leaving Raymond and the others to continue pushing against it. The gate started to move as their combined efforts started to prevail.

Mark stood next to Kevin while Paul went next to Mark. They both raised their guns but the zombies were at least forty feet away from them. They couldn't make that kind of shot with accuracy. But Kevin could.

Raising his gun he fired at the closest shambling corpse and fired. The bullet took it above its left eye. Off centre but a killing shot none the less. More poured into the alleyway from the broken gate.

It was like an entire legion of them coming towards them. It vaguely reminded Kevin of a movie he had seen, not one with zombies though. It was a war film in which around a hundred soldiers came under attack from ten thousand Zulu. He couldn't remember the name though. Now wasn't the time either.

"I think it's a car." He heard Cindy say behind them. He heard the scraping of steel as well as the gate edges further open and decided it was probably was a car.

The zombies were getting closer now; close enough that Mark and Paul could get a shot. They both fired at once, sending two of the zombies falling. Kevin fired another one into the eye of another, sending it down.

Glancing back he saw that the gate was now pretty much open. Raymond and Cindy looked around to the other side. Suddenly Cindy screamed and Raymond aimed his gun. The gun clicked on empty as he squeezed the trigger.

"Shit!" He said and reached for the shotgun on his back. Kevin turned back to the zombies. Despite their accuracy the zombies were still getting closer. Hopefully there weren't many past the gate.

There was a loud bang to his left that was followed by a series of moans. Turning his head he noticed that a back door to one of the apartment blocks had been knocked off its hinges and a group of at least ten zombies were already charging out of the apartment – straight for Paul!

"No!" Paul screamed as the zombies swarmed over him, dragging him to the ground. Kevin and Mark turned and fired at the group, but there was too many. Paul was already surrounded on the ground and the rest were heading for them.

Mark fired, stepping back. Kevin looked to his right and saw that the main group of zombies were now within ten feet of them. They had to move. Now.

Paul's screams now joined the rest that were filtering through the city as the zombies tore at his flesh and ripped chunks away. He was completely obscured by them. There was no way even to get off a mercy shot to end his suffering.

"Quick!" Raymond called, "This way." He fired his shotgun at something Kevin couldn't see. He and Mark started to move towards the gate, firing at the zombies as they did. Paul's screamed now started to become high pitched and gurgled. Then they stopped. Whether he was dead or had just lost the ability to speak was unknown. Kevin hoped it was the former.

They moved out of the alley on the street that had a canal running next to it – and Kevin saw at least twenty zombies coming over a bridge from the other side of the canal straight towards them. He noticed the car the others had mentioned. It was turned upside down and a partially devoured corpse hung out the window. Two others lay next to it; each had part of their head missing, more than likely the handy work of Raymond's shotgun.

Up ahead was an oil tanker that stood driverless. The driver had either cut and run, or was dead. No zombies could be seen above it. It seemed the only route to take. Cindy, George and Alyssa started up the street. Kevin, Mark and Raymond followed them.

The zombies from the alleyway started to make their way out onto the street, joining with those that were already across the bridge. A few more corpses lay next to a crashed motorbike. No one saw the hand on one of them move.

"If we go this way," Raymond said, "We should be able to make it to Main Street in a few blocks." He turned back and unloaded another shell into the zombies, the force sending a few of them back. Kevin fired another shot into the group, and looked back up the street. To his dismay he saw another group of zombies heading down to them, from the direction they wanted to go.

They were trapped. Raymond turned and noticed it as well.

"Kevin!" He yelled and Kevin looked back at him. "Leak the fuel tank's gas, and burn these bastards!"

"What about us?" Kevin yelled back. Sure, the plan might take care of the zombies, but the fire would surely follow the gas back to the tanker and explode. Plus Kevin didn't have a lighter or matches.

"Jump into the canal!" Raymond yelled. "Use the sewers to get to Main Street!"

"Right!" Kevin yelled and turned to go to the tanker, but he noticed Mark and George were already there, turning the valve to release the gasoline. Kevin turned back to Raymond – and saw one of the motorcycle corpses get up behind him.

"Raymond watch out!" Kevin yelled. Raymond turned just as the creature lunged at him, grabbing onto his shoulders with his hands and forcing Raymond back…straight into the other zombies.

They clawed and grabbed at him as he stumbled backwards into them. They forced him and the other zombies forward, knocking both of them forward onto the ground. Raymond struggled the zombies grabbed and clawed at him furiously, keeping his pinned to the ground.

He looked up at Kevin, and as a last act reached down into his pocket. As the zombies descended on him he brought his arm forward again, and Kevin saw a lighter in his closed hand.

"Do it Kevin!" He yelled as he threw the lighter forward. It landed at Kevin's feet. "Light the gas-aaah!" His plea was cut short as the zombies began to feed, tearing and biting at him.

Kevin grabbed the lighter and reluctantly turned away from his doomed friend and ran up to the others who were stood by the tanker. Mark and George had succeeded in turning the valve as gasoline now poured down the street towards him. Kevin jumped to the side to avoid it as he ran and continued up.

He turned as he reached the others and held up flicked back the lid on the lighter. "Get into the canal quick!" He said and turned back to the zombies. Several of them headed up the street towards him while a few continued to feed on Raymond.

With a flick of his fingers he ignited the lighter and then threw it forward. It landed with a small splash on the gasoline and the flames ignited on impact went straight down, following the gasoline, to the zombies.

The flames engulfed the closest ones in flames and continued on towards the group that were feeding on Raymond. The flames wrapped around their bodies, smothering them in a wave of fire. They started moaning as the flamed consumed them, and Kevin wondered for the first time, if they could actually feel pain.

The first fell to the ground, possibly because the fire had destroyed his nerves, and fell onto his back, still reaching up into the air with his arms and moaning. Could they feel pain? Or was this just what fire did to bodies that were still walking around?

He heard several splashes behind him as the others jumped into the canal. The fire started to follow the specks of gasoline up the street and started heading towards the tanker. Kevin turned to the canal.

Suddenly he wondered if the water was infected with whatever turned these people into zombies. It might have been the cause, but what if one of the zombies had fallen into the water, would the water now be infected? Would he be infected if he jumped in?

If he stayed on the street he would be blown into a million charred and smoking pieces, and if he jumped there was a chance the water wasn't infected and he might be okay. He had no choice.

Praying that the water wasn't infected, he jumped.

_A/N: Yes, I am still alive. I was finally able to get the internet back and only now have I found the motivation to get up off my arse and start writing again. So I could give you all that bs about saying to expect regular updates, but I can say you can expect updates, regular or not I don't know. They'll just get done when they're done. But I am online full time now so it shouldn't be too long._

_By the way, a slightly technical question I need to know, if zombies did fall into the canals, would Raccoon City's water be infected? I know they probably get their water from the damn which probably goes to the water treatment plant, so it's probably not a factor, but if anyone knows much about the water supply of cities and how it could become infected it could be useful. Just so I know if I need to have people who drink water become screwed basically._

_P.S: Oh yeah, and I forgot to mentioned that I changed my name to scmower, since that actually is my name. But if anyone was confused, the old name was Vrante, now it's scmower._


	10. A New Plan

**Chapter Ten: A New Plan**

The night air bit with coldness as they made their way through the street. Nothing moved, nothing seemed to live. _It's almost amazing, _David thought, _how quickly it takes for the streets to become deserted. _

It was a back road sure, but they felt it was safer. They could still hear the screams and sirens echoing less than a block away; taking the main streets right now would be practically suicide. But still, the back street they were taking held no signs of life, at all. No signs of struggle either, almost like the chaos hadn't reached it yet.

Maybe it hadn't. They had been moving in silence for almost fifteen minutes, and had lost sight of the zombies in the alley after about three. They had passed by a few as they went, but none that were in a position of threat. But they couldn't allow themselves to think that for all of them, to be lulled into a false sense of security. It only took one zombie, one bite, and they'd be finished.

There was still no sign of anyone on the street; there probably never was. Anyone walking down this street in the early hours might have gotten the impression the place was a ghost town. At the rate things were going, that didn't seem like a far off idea.

"Hold on." The man in the shirt said, leaning against a brick wall. "I need a break, I'm sorry."

"Yeah," said the young Japanese girl, "Me too." The subway worker merely grunted a reply as he leaned back against the wall and slid down to a sitting position, clearly exhausted.

David looked back down the street, nothing moved. But it wouldn't last long. He guessed they were slightly ahead of the hordes, if they stopped for long, they'd catch them.

Why did _he _have to stop? He wasn't tired. This wasn't a group. They were just following him. He had already said he wasn't leading anyone. Why was he stopping? But was he really that cold hearted? Could he just turn and leave them?

_No._ He thought. _I can't just leave them like this. _He'd practically be condemning them to death. Or maybe he would be condemning himself to death by leaving them and going alone. There was a definite safety in numbers, and right now safety mattered. They could spare a few minutes.

XXX

Yoko leaned back against the wall, but continued standing. She caught her breath, but didn't feel as tired as she thought she would be. They practically been running non-stop, yet she felt she could still go on. But the others looked like they needed a rest. The sweat was practically pouring off the subway worker, and the guy from the bar didn't look much better.

"So what's your name?" The man said looking at the subway worker.

"Jim." The worker said through panting breathes. The man looked at her.

"Yoko" She said, suddenly realising that David might remember her from earlier and ask her about her sudden change in appearance. If he heard her he said nothing, he just kept on looking ahead down the street, as if on guard. Not a bad idea really.

"And you?" The man said to David, hoping to get his attention.

"David." He said without looking back. He just kept looking ahead. She wondered if he remembered her, but he seemed pretty busy back at the university.

_Oh God! _She thought. _Has the campus been hit? _Her thoughts went to Mr. Peterson and the other lecturers, and the students, people she knew. Mike, Tony, Sheila. She thought of Charlene, out of town for the weekend, and wondered if this was going on where she was. She couldn't know.

"I'm Rory." The man in the shirt said. "How many rounds do you have left in that?" He said to David.

"Thirteen." David said, still not turning back, or even bothering to check the gun that he still held in his hand.

"No other mags or clips?" Rory asked.

"No." David said simply.

"Okay," said Rory, turning back to the others. "So what's the plan?"

David said nothing. Yoko wasn't really expecting him to, after what he had said earlier. He did have a point though, and it was strange how in times of crisis people always looked to a leader to help them through. She supposed now was no different.

"I think we should probably keep moving," said Rory, "Maybe try to find the police station or some help. Maybe find out what's going on."

"That's not a bad idea." Said David. "Might want to hurry it up though."

"Why?" Rory asked looking over at him.

"Because we have company." David said.

Fear filled Yoko as she followed his line of sight down the street. Two shambling could be seen about fifty feet away, slowly making their way towards them. She saw David ready his gun, but at fifty feet his odds of getting a direct shot were slim, and from what she had seen, nothing short of a head shot took these creatures down.

David took aim, probably waiting for them to come within distance before he-

He fired. One of the zombie's heads jerked back and it fell over. They had to be at least forty five feet away. He had aced a shot at that distance…maybe there was more to him that met the eye.

Suddenly another shot rang through the air. Not from David, but someone else. David tensed, keeping the gun raised as the second zombie fell. The shot had come from someone else. _So why is David keeping his gun raised?_ She thought, surely if it was another group of people they could co-operate.

Maybe they were looters, or worse. In time like these people themselves had the capacity to become worse than the threats facing them. They could try to rob them. She had an idea why David still had his gun up.

Four figures emerged from an alleyway about fifteen feet from them. Three men and a woman, all looked like civilians, but she couldn't be sure. One of the men turned and saw them.

"Hey!" He said, beckoning them over. No guns were raised from them. Cautiously, David lowered his and started to approach. She noticed he didn't put it away, but kept it firmly held in his hand, facing down.

One of the men, who had brown curly hair, seemed to be arguing with the one who had called them over. They all seemed on edge; maybe they didn't want anyone else with them. She noticed them better now; the one with the brown curly hair was in a greyish suit and could possibly be classed as overweight, even though he didn't really look it.

The girl looked young, possibly in her early twenties. She was dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt with a black jacket over it. The man who had called them over didn't look much older. African American with short black hair and casual clothes that consisted of jeans and purple jacket that was currently zipped up.

The man at the back of the group didn't do much. He seemed to be trying to avoid eye contact as they arrived. He looked to be in his early forties, wearing green trousers and a shirt with no jacket. A badge hung from his shirt pocket reading _Raccoon 10._ She then noticed they all had similar badges.

"Hey," said the African American man who had called them over. He spoke with a strong American accent and had probably lived in America all his life. "I'm Riq." He said.

"Like it fucking matters." Said the man with the brown hair. He spoke with an English accent. She got the general feeling from him that he'd rather not have them around.

"And who are you?" Asked Rory.

"Tony Curtis!" The man said, with a look on his face that bordered on disbelief. Like he thought it was the most irrelevant question ever.

"This is Patrick." Said the girl stepping forward. "I'm Kelly," She pointed to the man at the back, "And this is Joplin."

"Oh for fuck's sake." The man now identified as Patrick said in frustration.

"You guys with the news?" David said.

"No," Said Patrick, "We're with Nasa. Of course we're with the fucking news!"

"What's going on out there?" David said, clearly ignoring Patrick's rudeness. Yoko was already forming a less than savoury opinion of the man.

"I'll tell you what's happening!" Said Patrick, stepping forward. "There are a bunch of ghoulies out there who think it's a good idea to eat everybody! And they just ate, most of our fucking crew!"

Yoko was now starting to see why the man was acting so aggressive. The stress of the situation was clearly taking its toll. He looked like he was close to a mental breakdown.

"I'm Rory." Said Rory, "This is David, Yoko and Jim."

"Well fucking great for you." Said Patrick, "But if you'll excuse us, we are getting the fuck out of here."

"How?" Asked David.

"Magic mole machine!" Said Patrick. David grunted in frustration, clearly he was beginning to lose patience with this man. She couldn't blame him.

"There's a helicopter." Said Kelly. "It's going to take us back to the studio."

"Uh fuck that!" Said Patrick. "I'm not going back to that fucking studio and getting trapped. I am getting the fuck out of this city."

"That's not a bad plan." Said David.

"Well I'm so glad you approve." Said Patrick sarcastically.

"You can come with us if you like." Said Riq.

"Fuck off!" Said Patrick defiantly.

"Patrick," Said Kelly. "We can't just leave them here when we have a possibility of an escape."

"Eh, yeah we can." Said Patrick. "There's not enough room in the helicopter."

"You've been in it." Argued Kelly, "It can take ten and you know that."

"Fine!" Said Patrick turning away. "For fuck's sake." Yoko was wondering if they would actually accept the invitation. From what she could tell about this man so far, he probably wouldn't think twice before sacrificing one of them to save his own hide. She had a feeling David knew it too from the way he looking at him.

"Where is the chopper?" Asked Rory.

"It's close." Said Kelly, "On the other side of the zoo to be precise." She pointed down the street to a large set of gates about thirty feet ahead. Yoko had no idea they were near the zoo. It made the fact that the street was deserted even more eerie. "We were just going to cut through the zoo. The pilot called us and told us that was the only place he could set down."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Said David. "Heading through the zoo."

"Why?" Asked Riq. "What do you mean?"

"Well how do you know the animals in the zoo aren't like the people out here?" Said David. Something else pinged within Yoko. Almost like another memory, the thought of animals behaving like the people. Somehow she knew it was true. But How?

"Oh fuck off Richard Attenborough." Said Patrick. "It's not attack of zombie animals!"

"If whatever this is makes people eat each other," Said David, "What's to say animals aren't doing the same?"

"He's got a point." Said Kelly.

"Oh fuck off." Said Patrick. "You can't believe what this guy says! He's wearing a jumpsuit for fuck's sake!"

"We should find another way." Said David, his frustration was evident in his voice.

"I'm sorry," Said Patrick, "Are you on some personal quest to redefine ineptitude?"

"Listen you son of a bitch!" Said David, advancing on Patrick.

"Oh what are you gonna do?" Patrick said moving forward to meet his challenge.

"That's enough!" Said Rory stepping in between them. "Look David's right. For all we know those animals could have the same thing those people have."

"Right well," Said Patrick, stepping away from them all. "You guys have fun finding another way around and getting your arse eaten off. But I, am gonna cut through the zoo and reach the chopper before you. Oh and by the way," He said turning back to them. "I won't tell him to wait either."

"Patrick wait!" Said Kelly, turning to him.

"Fuck ye." He said, walking towards the gate.

"Fuck!" Kelly grunted in annoyance as she ran after him. "Wait!"

Yoko looked over to Rory, wandering what his next move was. He looked back at her with the same look. Riq looked at them. "I'm sorry," he said, "He's usually a dick but he's never this bad."

An explosion rocked somewhere in the distance, shaking the ground. A fireball spread up into the night sky. It had probably come from a nearby gas station. The explosion must have been bad as the ground was still shaking.

Then she realised it wasn't the explosion that was causing the ground to shake. It was something else. The ground heaved again, as though meteors were falling from the sky. Maybe they were, maybe this was the apocalypse. Or maybe something very big was heading their way.

The ground shook once again. This time severe enough to make Patrick stop and look back with worry. They all started to look around. There was nothing that could make the ground shake like that, unless it was a dinosaur from that film last year. Whatever it was, it was getting closer. Garbage cans started to fall over as the thumps intensified.

"Move!" David said as he started running. They all followed. She didn't know where they were going, but they had to get away from whatever was following them. There was a crash behind them that sounded like a whole building being torn down. Yoko risked a look back.

A huge chunk of the wall they had been leaning against was now gone, destroyed by the titan that now stood on the street. It had once been an elephant, but now it was huge. Mutated beyond normal proportion, there were several pieces on its body where the skin had either fallen away or was flaking away. The tusks had mutated too. No longer a single sharp curve, they had several smaller spikes sticking out of them

"What the fuck is that!" She heard Patrick yell. It seemed David's theory of infected animals was right. The creature roared, a sound half like a normal elephant, and half like a demon from hell.

It started moving, its giant legs carrying it a much greater distance than a normal elephant could move. The group was already moving, but the elephant would be faster. At this rate it would catch them before they moved onto the next street.

Patrick was already at the main gates of the zoo and was hauling them open. Kelly had now reached him and was helping him. It was the best decision. Given their circumstances, the zoo was now the only viable place to run.

The ground shook even more as the elephant charged towards them. The gates were open and Patrick was already running inside. Kelly moved through to the other side and waited for them to catch up, already getting ready to shove the gate back into place when they arrived.

Riq was next through, followed by Jim. Joplin and Rory were next. The elephant was getting closer to her and David. It was almost bearing down on them. David turned and fired, still running backwards. The elephant roared in response. She didn't know where the shot had hit, but it must have done a little bit of damage as the elephant slowed, buying them the seconds they needed.

They rushed through the gate as Kelly and Rory started to push it back into place. Then Yoko noticed the small metal bar that would lock, and how it would not stand up to the elephant.

"That's not going to work!" Yoko yelled to them. The elephant was already gearing itself back for another charge.

"I know!" Yelled Kelly as the gate slid back into place. "But it might buy us a few seconds." Together they slid the lock back into place and turned running from the gate. "Go!"

Yoko turned with them, and saw the giant plaza they were currently in. Pens surrounded them on either side, except they were now empty. Two paths presented themselves; the one ahead of them which would lead them deeper into the zoo, or the one to the right which looked like it lead to some office buildings.

The others were already running right. It was their best shot. They had no hope of outrunning the elephant, but if they could get into a building they might be able to escape it.

The gate heaved and bent as the elephant crashed against it. But it didn't break. Kelly was right; the gate could but them valuable seconds. The elephant charged again, and the gate shattered, spraying bits of steel down on the ground. She saw they were now twenty feet away from it and were about to pass under an archway with a _visitor's centre_ sign on it. There had to be staff buildings around somewhere.

The elephant charged again, shaking the ground as it went. Suddenly a souvenir stands fell to the ground shattering in front of them, tossed by the elephant.

"There!" David yelled and veered off to the right. She followed and saw a shining beacon of escape. An office building right next to the visitors centre. A flight of stairs led up to it. The elephant wouldn't be able to get them in there.

There was a roar behind them as the elephant smashed its way through the wooden archway and started to turn right, following them.

They ran on, reaching the stairs and frantically ran up them. Patrick reached the door first and yanked it open. She had almost thought the door wouldn't be open when they reached it. She wondered if there were any zombies inside, then realised they didn't have a choice.

She fled through the door with the others and David slammed it shut behind them. She turned briefly to take in the office room they had run into. It was empty. Besides some tables, chairs and scattered papers they were the only ones there. For the moment, it seemed like they were safe.

Outside the elephant roared in frustration.

XXX

Kevin hauled himself into the tunnel, water dripping from him. The fire still burned across the river where the tanker had gone up, taking the zombies and Raymond with it. He felt sadness and anger at the loss of his friend, but he knew that he had to keep those emotions in check. He had a job to do, and these people depended on him.

He crawled through the small tunnel that seemed to lead to a bigger one ahead. The smell of sewage sifted through the air, causing him to wince. Ahead he heard others coughing, some gagging. At least they had made it.

Crawling forward he practically fell through into the next tunnel, which was big enough to stand in. He saw Alyssa just next to him, Mark just past her and Cindy and George just past him. Kevin struggled to get to his feet, his wet uniform clinging to him.

"Is everybody okay?" He yelled down the tunnel.

"Yeah." Said Mark.

"Yes." George replied and Cindy nodded her head. Alyssa said nothing, just stood up and started down the tunnel. They all started to get up. Up ahead Kevin could see light coming down from a manhole. They could use that to get out. But what would be waiting once they reached the top?

"There's a manhole down there." Mark said, noticing it up there.

"Yeah," said George, but how safe is it up there?" He had a point. Kevin didn't know if there were any zombies down in the sewers, but there weren't any in that tunnel with them. Maybe they could hide out in the sewers, or wait until the worst passed over them and head up after.

But what about him? He had to go up; he had to try to help people. That was his job; he didn't have the luxury of hiding, unless the entire police station was compromised. That was a dark thought. What if the station had already been knocked out? What if in a few minutes they would be the only humans left alive in the city?

He already knew that was impossible. The entire city couldn't be overtaken by the living dead in the space of thirty minutes. Unless it was some kind of strategically planned attack, and even that was unlikely.

"Only one way to find out." Alyssa said, stepping past them and heading over to the manhole. Kevin followed her, feeling more compelled to than wanting to. This woman had already made it clear she didn't want nor need his help.

She reached the bottom of the ladder, causing the light shafts from above to shine over her eyes, which she guarded with her hand. Kevin stood next to her looking up. Aside from audible screams from what sounded like other streets, there were none above them, nor any sounds of movement.

"It looks okay." Said Kevin to the others. They started to come over. "I'll go first." Said Kevin, raising his gun and putting his other hand on the rungs.

"Wait a minute," Said Alyssa starting to protest.

"I have a gun." Kevin said and started to climb. Alyssa said nothing; there was nothing she could say. It made sense for the person who had a gun and training to go first in a situation like this.

He started to climb that ladder, hearing the others get into position behind him. No doubt Alyssa would be the second one to climb. He shook the thoughts of that woman out of his head as he reached the top and started to move the manhole.

He raised the lid high enough so that he could see out onto the street. There were people moving around about twenty feet away from them. At first he thought they might have been zombies, but he saw they moved faster and with a purpose. They were normal.

He looked to the side and saw that the street was a dead end except for the alleyway that was off to the side. A car was crashed next to it. Blood smeared the windscreen. To their left was a large hotel that Kevin recognised as the Apple Inn or at least what seemed to be left of it. The doors had been ripped off their hinges and a trail of blood led straight into the hotel. He could see a few bodies inside. He doubted anyone was still alive inside of it.

Pushing the manhole up further he slid it across the ground. It grated against the tarmac louder than he would have liked, getting the attention of the people further down the road.

"It's okay." He yelled as he pulled himself out of the shaft. "We're normal. I'm a cop." A few of the people looked away and another one stepped one. One wearing an R.P.D uniform that he recognised; Dorian.

Kevin started towards him as the others started to emerge out of the manhole. He dared a quick glance into the Apple Inn as he passed by. Bodies and body parts lay strewn around the reception. Whatever had happened it had been bloody, but whoever had done it had moved on. Or they were still inside and would be heading out at any point. That thought did nothing to reassure him.

"Kev," Said Dorian coming up to him. "I got a call from the station. Apparently, whatever this is seems to be only be happening in the south-east side of the city."

That reassured Kevin somewhat. At least it meant the whole city hadn't been knocked out. Yet. Alyssa walked up next to them and stood listening. Mark followed towards them while George helped Cindy off the ladder.

"I don't know if that's going to change," continued Dorian. "It might, but all the reports so far are coming in from this side of the city. They told us to wait for a pickup here in about five minutes. Maybe ten depending on how bad it is."

"Okay," said Kevin, "But listen man, Elliot and a few others have a whole bunch of them over on Main Street."

"I know," said Dorian, "We picked him up on the scan. They're putting up some kind of blockade to keep them at bay and they're going to wire the whole street to blow."

"Oh my god." Kevin said. They were going to blow up Main Street, and everyone on it. The explosion would be seen across half the city.

"Yeah," said Dorian, nodding. "A van's gonna come round in a few minutes and pick up the survivors and take them back to the station to find out what the hell's going on. While they do that we'll take the squad car over to Main Street and help the others."

"Sounds like a plan." Said Kevin.

"Yeah", Dorian said, "We just gotta sit tight till evac arrives."

Alyssa walked past them and continued on towards the other survivors. Apparently she had heard enough to be in the loop. George and Cindy followed her. Mark stayed with them.

"By the way," Kevin said, "Raymond, Paul, Dean and Lenny are all dead. Plus some others."

"Yeah," said Dorian, the loss reading on his face. "We heard a lot of the guys go down over the scanner. I don't know how many officers we've lost. We might have to call in the guard or army."

The National Guard probably would get called in sooner rather than later. With an unknown amount of officers dead to such a horrific situation that could spread throughout the whole city, the R.P.D. may find itself overwhelmed and outnumbered. They would need reinforcements.

They started to head over to the main group of survivors. Some were milling around, others just sat on the ground or leaned against the wall. Others leaned against the squad car that was nearby. A few were in tears. One was sitting on the ground crying and hugging her knees. Kevin could only guess what horror she had witnessed.

"They all know the evac's coming." Said Dorian as they arrived. "We just gotta sit tight until then."

A few others survivors milled around down the street, no doubt keeping a look out. A few stood outside the Apple Inn looking inside.

Kevin sat down on the bonnet of the squad car and ran his fingers through his hair. This was the first chance they'd had to stop all night since J's bar. He saw the faces of everyone who had died in the flight that taken place since the initial zombie showed up in the bar. The one who had been at the riot.

Now that he noticed it the signs had been there all day. But who would have read them. Who would have known what it was heralding. He hadn't. His thoughts traced back to that crazy they had apprehended at the riot, who he was now sure had been a zombie. How could they not have made the connection back then? How could they not have noticed what it was? Why did Irons want rid of it so bad?

His thoughts then went racing back to Irons and the way he had snapped at Marvin. Had he known what the thing was back then? Did he know now? Had he known that this was going to happen? Was he involved in some way?

The idea of Irons being involved in something like this didn't seem unlikely or surprise him. When he got back to the station he'd find Irons and have a nice little chat with him. He'd find out what the fat bastard knew.

"Aahh!"

The scream caused everyone's head to rise. Kevin and Dorian instinctively reached for their guns as they ran forward.

The scream had come from one of the survivors outside the Apple Inn who was currently wrestling with a zombie. Blood dripped from its mouth and from the man's arm. The woman next to him leapt at the zombie from behind and started to pull it away.

It worked and the zombie was jerked away from the man, being held by the neck by the woman. It had no chance of biting her. But the ones behind her did.

They seemed to lunge as one, appearing seemingly out of nowhere from within the Apple Inn's reception. Two of them bit at either side of her neck, causing her to scream and let go of the zombie, which immediately turned and joined in the fray.

More seemed to flood out of the Apple Inn and swarmed over the bitten man who barely had a chance to move before he was dragged to the ground screaming.

Kevin and Dorian cringed as they realised there was nothing they could do. More came out of the Inn and headed towards them, moaning hungrily as they did. Behind them someone else was crying now out of desperation. Mark ran up beside them drawing his gun.

The three of them were now the only defence the survivors had against being eaten. They were the only wall that separated them. Kevin raised his gun and fired, praying the evac would get there soon.

_A/N: Okay so there's the next chapter. I was originally just gonna have it cover the whole scenario of Wild Things, but it would have been like 40 pages and plus I needed to show what Kevin and the others were doing, so the next one will be the rest of Wild Things and the end of Outbreak. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Oh and if anyone caught certain references to a zombie show that was on T.V. in the UK, you're not insane, I did steal a few names and characters to play homage to it. Cause it rocked. Oh yeah, and I noticed that we have now passed the 100 page mark. I'm not exactly how many pages I have so far, but I know this chapter takes it over 100, so yay!_


	11. Wild Things

**Chapter Eleven: Wild Things**

The office vibrated and shook with each frustrated footstep as the elephant prowled outside, desperate and angered at losing its prey. Jim looked around the empty office, simultaneously shitting himself and hugely relieved there wasn't anything in there to deal with. The elephant roared again in fury as it stormed around outside.

So whatever this was also affected animals too. _Shit!_ Jim thought. As if the walking dead weren't bad enough they now had animals to deal with. The zombies were dangerous, sure, but they could be out run. As long as they didn't surround him or get the jump on him he could be okay, but they were slow. Probably due to rigormortis. Now there were animals that were either dead or mutated so much that they ran around like they were jacked up on PCP.

This was some bad shit. Silently, in the back of his mind, he was glad him grandma had passed away a fear before this. If she had been killed by this, he didn't know what he would have done. At least she didn't have to live through this. For that he was glad.

"Right," Said Rory, now recovering after the long sprint they had all had. "What now?"

"What do you mean?" Said Joplin. Jim noticed that was the first time he had heard Joplin talk.

"Well how do we get out of here and to that chopper?" Said Rory. Jim noticed that David and Yoko both stood over by the far wall, both saying nothing. They were both watching the large window that covered most of the adjacent wall. A window that the elephant was behind. A window that Jim was dangerously close to.

He quickly moved over to join them.

"We need to find a way out of this building." Said Kelly. "Maybe try some of the doors and find another door somewhere. Hopefully without…that spotting us."

There was a door behind her, as well as a few others down the far end of the room. Past the window. He wouldn't be trying that door any time soon.

"Hold on." Said Patrick. "What about the other animals?"

"Come again?" Said Riq.

"We're in a fucking zoo you prick!" Said Patrick. "There's going to be animals all over the place. What if they're all as fucked up as that thing out there?!"

"We don't really have much of a choice unless we want to stay in here and hope it goes away!" Said Kelly, frustration showing in her voice. Jim didn't blame her, if this was what her boss was like under stress; he dreaded to see what he was like when calm.

The others continued to argue as Jim looked over at David and Yoko. Both were still silent and watching the window, occasionally looking over at the others. Maybe they were regretting coming along with them. David had been unusually quiet since, well, even more quiet than usual. He was probably sticking to what he had said earlier, about not wanting to have any responsibility for anyone.

The sound of the elephant roaring outside drowned out the arguing of the others. And then the room started to shake, more than before. Almost like…the elephant was charging…

With a crash that Jim was sure he would remember until the day he died, whenever that would be, the elephant thrust its head through the window, roaring as it did and swinging the trunk up in the air.

Jim instinctively ducked as it swung overhead. Someone screamed, from the sounds of it Patrick. Then everyone was yelling, and there was movement. Panicked movement and screaming that was soon drowned out by the sound of the elephant roaring again. Jim knew if he didn't move now, he would die. He looked up.

David and Yoko were running towards the door at the far end of the room with Kelly. Patrick was already opening the nearest door and practically leaping out of it with Joplin. Above all the commotion he could hear Kelly's voice shouting out to everyone.

"Make for south entrance of the zoo!" She yelled. "By the tram lines!"

With that she was gone, running out into the hallway with David and Yoko. The only other person he could see in the room was Riq, and he was already reaching out to help him up standing next to the door Patrick, Joplin and Rory had gone through.

Jim gladly received the open hand as Riq hauled him to his feet and practically dragged him through the door. There was another crash behind him accompanied by a gust of wind as the elephant's trunk swung out again in aggression. If he had been a split second later…

He and Riq both ran down the corridor. He couldn't see the others. He just ran, turning almost every corner as they went, trying to find a way from the elephant and a way out.

XXX

Kevin slammed in another clip as he staggered back from the shambling masses in front of him. There seemed to be no end to them. They had already taken down at least twenty between all three of them, but for every one that died, it seemed four took its place. Just like some fucked up piece of mythology.

"Last mag!" Kevin yelled above the sound of gunfire. Seven round; not nearly enough.

"Nearly empty!" Yelled Dorian as he fired at more of the creatures. There were just too many. Even if every shot was on target, they were getting closer, and they wouldn't be able to hold them off much longer.

Something flew through the air. He didn't dare take his eyes off the approaching corpses as it did for fear of missing a shot. The object landed hard on one of the zombies, knocking it to the ground. A rock. Another one flew through the air, followed by more.

Another zombie fell over as the rock clipped it on the forehead. He could assume it was the survivors behind them throwing them, but they weren't killing them. The most it would buy with was a few seconds. Still, a few seconds could mean the difference between life and death.

More zombies staggered out of the Apple Inn, all in various states of mutilation. One man had half of his neck ripped out so that his head was basically hanging at an off angle to the other side. Another staggered out seemingly oblivious to the fact that its intestines were trailing out of its stomach with it.

He saw another with only one leg crawling along the ground towards them. There was another one not far behind it, except this one was basically just a torso with a head and arms. She had been ripped apart in the mid section and was now crawling forward with nothing beneath her stomach. The image was horrifying.

He saw someone step up beside him. Glancing over he saw one of the civilians brandishing a long metal pipe.

"What are you doing?!" Kevin yelled as he targeted another zombie and fired. Four shots left.

The civilian didn't reply, instead he leapt at the nearest zombie with the pipe, smashing it over the head with it. The zombie fell to the ground as he swung at another. He was swinging wildly, clearly more of a brawler than a fighter. Still, they needed everything they could get.

He swung at another zombie, crushing its skull with the blow. His actions were beginning to attract others started after his determinedly. He brought the pipe down hard on another creature, killing it, and moved to the side. He was trying to keep his distance, but instead he was beginning to get surrounded.

One of them came around at his side and lunged forward to deliver a fatal bite. Kevin fired at it as it did. The shot took it in the shoulder, knocking it back and buying his enough time to deliver a final blow with pipe to it.

Three shots left.

"I'm out!" Dorian yelled and took a step back.

"Get back!" Kevin yelled and started falling back. He saw Mark do the same. He looked over and saw the man with the pipe, and then felt his heart drop as he three of them leaping at him at once.

The man swung the pipe in panic, leaping back as he did. The pipe connected with one of the zombies, knocking it to the side but not killing it. More zombies moved in behind him and moved in, surrounding him. It was almost strategic. More advanced and he disappeared behind them.

Kevin saw one stagger back from a blow and fall over moaning as it went. He saw another fall back as well, but also saw one lunge forward, followed by the rest. They moved as one, all forcing themselves forwards mouth first. They fell as one too, already devouring as they hit the ground.

Kevin heard the man's screams and felt his heart drop lower knowing he could do nothing as the zombies tore him apart. He fired another shot and took down another zombie that was advancing. Now he was down to two, and then they were screwed.

"There!"

Kevin turned at Dorian's cry and felt his hope rise. Down the road he could see the headlights of one of the R.P.D vans. The type they used for transporting criminals.

"Move!" He yelled, pointing as he did.

The civilians started to run towards it. He saw the truck slow down and start to turn, presenting the doors to them. He fired at another zombie, moving back with Mark as he did. Another one lunged at him and fired again.

One of the civilians to his right started to run, and then was yanked to the ground. Kevin turned to her, and saw the zombie with only one leg bite deep into her ankle.

He fired.

_Click._

He was out. Another shot came from behind him and hit the zombie in the head.

"Help her!" Mark said behind him as he fired another shot.

"Come on!" Kevin said to the woman as he grabbed her hand and helped her up. She cried out in pain as she stood and Kevin slung her arm over his shoulder to support her. "Come on we can make it!" Together they stumbled towards the van doors which were now open. He heard more shots behind him as Mark followed them.

The survivors piled into the van, practically scrambling for safety. Kevin and the woman limped up and she climbed into the van, helped by some of the others. Once he saw she was fully on the van he turned to look for Mark.

He was right behind him, firing a shot at the zombies.

"Get in!" Kevin said and grabbed the older man by the shoulders, hauling him into the van. He reached over and started to close the doors. Suddenly one of the zombies grabbed onto the door started to pull back, trying to gain access to the van.

Kevin pulled his foot back and kicked the creature hard in the face, sending it flying back. He saw several of its teeth hit the ground along with it. He grabbed onto the doors and slammed them shut.

"Go!" He yelled up to the driver. Immediately the van speeded off down the street, leaving their undead pursuers behind.

XXX

The door opened leading back out into the chilling air of the night. Jim looked around for any signs of the elephant or, for that matter, anything else. Their flight through the building had been relatively undisturbed, unless he counted the zombie he saw briefly in one of the rooms as they ran past. They hadn't run into any of the others. Either they had found another way out, or they hadn't made it.

They had emerged into the employee car park, which by this time was mostly empty. He saw only one car parked, which he assumed belonged to the undead occupant they had passed in the building. He didn't know how many zombies there might be in the zoo, and right now he wasn't really worried about them either.

"Right." Said Riq, stepping forward and looking around. "We need to find out where we are. The helicopter is at the south side tram lines, so we need to find a way over there."

"Okay." Said Jim, realising that in a zoo full of potentially zombified or mutated animals it was probably easier said than done.

Riq walked forward, looking around as he went. There was a gate in the corner that presumably led into the zoo. The car park was lit by only one light that just had to flicker. The dancing light cast shadows over the rest of the parking lot, creating perfect hiding places for anything to just jump out.

Jim literally turned in circles as they moved over to the door. He knew there was probably nothing in the lot with them, but that didn't make it any easier. Riq reached the gate first and placed his hand on it. Very slowly, he creaked it open.

Glancing over Riq's shoulder Jim saw an empty pathway that was probably part of the main route through the zoo. Nothing moved that he could see. It looked safe. Riq moved the gate open the rest of the way, fully exposing themselves to anything that wanted to jump out from around the corner and take a bite out of them. Still there was nothing.

They moved out onto the pathway and took hold of their surroundings. On either side of the path was a wire mesh fence about seven feet high circling an enclosure that stretched off beyond Jim's line of sight. The path twisted and led into other directions. On the wall beside them was a map.

They both walked up to it. Riq raised his hand to it and pointed with his finger. "We're here," he said pointing to the arrow on the map that showed where were. The arrow _You Are Here_ pointed to _Hyena Heaven. _"And the tramlines are here." He said pointing to them on the map. "So if we go this way," he said, following a path with his finger, "we should arrive right at it."

Conveniently the path was a relatively straight line that led through a few more enclosures but led in the end to the tram area. The other enclosures on the area were a giraffe one and some sort of bio-dome that housed lots of plants. Assuming they made it through the hyenas and giraffes okay, they would make it easy.

"Come on let's go." Riq said and started heading down the path. Jim followed. They both failed to notice a section of the wire fence that had been chewed out. Blood stained it.

"So have you got any idea what this whole thing is?" Jim said as he caught up to him.

"No idea man." Said Riq as they continued. "But this whole thing was building up all day. Car crashes, riots, I'm amazed we never saw it coming."

Behind them something moved in the darkness. Something small, no bigger than a dog. A second joined it, then a third. Slowly they made their way through the darkness towards their oblivious prey.

"Do you think this is happening everywhere?" Jim asked worriedly. The thought of the world coming to an end wasn't a comforting one. Especially if it meant you would be ripped apart in the end.

"I don't know. Sucks if it is." Riq said. "It wouldn't surprise me though. I mean, whatever this thing is, there's no way it's only happening here. And if it is ground zero, I doubt they'll be able to stop it."

Various thoughts ran through Jim's head at once. Most of them were what ifs. What would happen to the world if this was happening everywhere? Would the governments fall? Would bombs be dropped on countries to ensure another's survival? He was so caught up in his own thoughts he didn't even hear the growling that started behind him.

But Riq did.

With one hand he reached out and caused Jim to stop. He motioned with it to be quiet and stood perfectly still, listening. Fear overtook Jim. The sudden realisation that anything could be with them in the darkness of the enclosure, and worse still, it was behind him, so he couldn't see it. That was the worst fear, the fear that something you couldn't see could get you.

A long deep, animalistic growl drifted through the air behind them.

"Run!" Riq yelled and took off. Jim moved about a tenth of a second later, feeling a surge of adrenaline inside of him taking over.

Wind flew by them both as they ran down the pathway, sheer terror gripping tight. Behind them their pursuers gave chase. The sound of paws and claws grating against the ground came up behind them. Louder and louder. Closer and closer. Until they pounced.

Jim was sure he felt a huge weight come crashing down and knock him over. But he realised he was still running. He looked to his side, but Riq wasn't there. He glanced back and found himself stopping dead.

Through the darkness he could see three silhouettes of animals that looked like dogs, biting and tearing at something on the ground. Something that screamed. Riq!

The three hyenas bit and clawed at him as he squirmed on the ground, screaming in agony as they ripped and chewed holes out of him. Jim thought hyenas were supposed to be scavengers that only preyed on small animals on the Serengeti. But what he saw in front of him showed something different entirely. Perhaps they were starving and were forced to hunt larger prey, or maybe they were infected too, like the elephant.

Riq's screams started to die down and were replaced by gurgles as Jim looked on in desperation. Suddenly one of the hyenas looked up at Jim and snarled. A paralysing fear came over Jim. Until it charged at him.

Suddenly snapped out by fear he turned and sprinted as fast as he could away from the creature. Riq was dead; there was nothing he could do. He had to escape and find the others. The hyena charged after him. He could hear it panting as did, getting closer with each one.

Up ahead he saw the door that led out of the enclosure. Usually open during the day, but it was closed at night. He prayed it wasn't locked. If it was he was screwed. The hyena got closer and prepared to jump. He wasn't going to reach the door in time.

The creature jumped and Jim let himself drop to the ground. He felt the air brush over him as the hyena flew forward, not expecting to miss its prey. It landed roughly a few feet from the door stunned. Jim took the opportunity and leapt to his feet.

He jerked the door open, relieved that it wasn't locked and moved through, turning to close the door behind him as he did. As he did he saw the hyena was already on its feet. Once again it leapt. Jim pulled on the door.

The hyena and door connected, the creature getting its head caught between the door and arch. It snarled and lunged at Jim with its mouth, but was unable to reach him. Jim pushed harder on the door, starting to crush the creature's neck. With a yelp it pulled its head back through and the door shut.

Jim slid the latch into place to secure the door. He turned to face his new surroundings. Several large wooden buildings lay empty. More than likely they were used to house the giraffes. None were around. A pool of blood had gathered in the middle of the house, along with smears along the walls and ground.

The door behind him rocked as the hyena leapt against it from the other side. It probably wouldn't hold for very long. Jim set off into the Giraffe house, hoping to god he didn't find any.

XXX

Rory was not having a good night.

First of all there had been the zombies, which by the way, were not supposed to be real but more crap b-movie material. Then there was the giant elephant that was somehow zombified in itself, and now, he was stuck wondering around a fucking zoo, with one of the worst people on the planet imaginable.

"Do you know where we're going?" Rory asked as they walked along the pathway.

"For the last fucking time yes!" Said Patrick annoyed, and sighed with evident frustration. Rory clenched fists in his own frustration. The man was an asshole; he didn't care about anyone or anything. He probably only cared about how big his pay cheque was. Still, they were stuck with him.

"We just have to keep following this path," said Joplin, "A few turns and corners then we'll reach it."

"How do you know that?" Asked Rory.

"Cause I did a story here a few months ago." He said, "Got to learn the layout of the place pretty well."

Rory nodded. He still didn't believe what was happening. He was only out for a few drinks with his friends, and they had only dragged him out to cheer him up about Cheryl dumping him. She was probably dead now, dead and walking around. What a way to go.

They would have been moving in together tonight if she hadn't had called it off. They had been together three months, but Rory felt like it had been three years. He felt like he had known her all his life and he had realised at that time that he didn't to be with anyone else. He was in love.

He had asked her to move in after just over a week ago. She had been stunned at first and had seemed hesitant, but had then said yes. It had made his heart leap when she said it. Then this morning when he had gone round to help her move her things she had told she couldn't do it.

She had said things were moving way too fast for her and she couldn't think straight. In his desperation he had told her just to stay where she was, as long as they were still together. But she said she couldn't do it. She said it just wouldn't feel the same. In a way she was right, but it didn't stop the pain nonetheless.

After about five hours of moping around a now empty apartment his friend Steve had came round and told him to let it go. All with the love of another good woman, that of lady liquor. Rory had been against it at first, not wanting to go back out and face the world, but Steve said he didn't have a say in the matter.

He had been the first to go when the zombies showed up, bitten in the neck as they were attempting to run out of the door. He wondered if he not been persuaded to go out drinking with them, would he still be alive? He hadn't seen any of the others either, they had all fled in different directions the second the shit hit the fan. They were all good guys when everything went right, but when it went bad, they weren't to be seen.

And now here he was, walking down a pathway in a zoo full of creatures that were probably a hundred times dangerous than zombies, ready to tear them limb from limb at a seconds glance. And he was stuck with this prick.

"We better fucking get there before them." Patrick said as he continued walking, "I'm not going to wait for them once we get there. They probably won't make it anyway."

Rory didn't say anything, but he had absolutely no intention of leaving the others behind. Not David, Yoko, Jim or the others Patrick was with. He wouldn't run away from someone if they needed help. It wasn't his style.

They rounded a bend in the pathway. Foliage rose up above them on either side as they continued. Ahead Rory saw a wooden door that led to an area further beyond. A second path to their left led to another door. Joplin motioned them forward towards the first door.

Suddenly in front of them a lioness emerged from the foliage and looked up at them, blocking their access. The creature looked at them with black eyes that showed nothing of the wounds on its body. Several pieces of skin were missing showing the exposed muscle and bone underneath. The creature was definitely infected like the elephant.

"Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me." Said Patrick, hardly believing what he was seeing.

The creature growled at them and started to advance. All three of them stepped back, each slowly heading back to the door on the left. Rory kept his eyes on the lion's eyes, looking for any sign that it was going to charge. The eyes moved up and met his, causing him to freeze. Then the creature charged.

Without a sound it moved towards them with extreme agility and speed. All three of them turned and sprinted down towards the door, showing an ability less graceful than that of the attacking creature.

_Oh Jesus Christ don't let me die like this! _Rory thought as they sprinted at the door. _Please God not like this!_

Joplin was the first to reach the door and he flung it open. Rory somehow managed to overtake Patrick, who was running like a rabbit on crack, and ran through the door. As soon as Patrick was through Joplin slammed the door shut on the lion. Somehow they managed to find the latch and shut it, for all the good it would do.

The creature slammed against the door, forcing it forward a bit. It would hold for all of thirty seconds. They had to keep moving. Rory turned around and caught his breath in his throat.

"Oh fuck..." He said, barely noticing as he did.

Ahead of them was a swamp that stretched the full length of the enclosure. Smoke rose up at several areas dissipating into the wind. A bridge that was meant to span the whole swamp had been destroyed, only a partial bit remained. But that wasn't what caught Rory's breath.

The swamp was full of Alligators!

They swam all over it, snapping at each other and any solid object they could find. A bloody boot floated in the water amongst them, probably belonging to a feeder who had quite literally done the feeding this time. Observation rooms overlooked the whole area above them giving the whole place the feel of a coliseum.

"Oh no fucking way!" Said Patrick. "Fuck this!"

"We don't have a choice!" Said Joplin, fright clear in his voice.

Behind them the gate budged again as the lion pressed against it. Wood started to splinter.

"There is no fucking way we can make it across that!" Patrick screamed at Joplin. He was right, the alligators would tear them to shreds the second they set foot in the water. But they stayed put, the lion would rip them to shreds where they stood. They were trapped.

"Here." Joplin said and reached up above him, grabbing one of the branches of the trees that overlooked the swamp. "We can make it across on these." Climbing up the branch sagged down under the strain but held. He reached out and grabbed the next one. Patrick went right behind him.

Rory looked back at the gate as the lion clawed at the wood, tearing a whole in it large enough for it to look through. It saw him and snarled. Rory reached out and grabbed the branch after Patrick left it. He hauled himself onto it as behind him the lion ripped the door apart.

It ran through leapt up at the branch he was on, clawing at him. Rory raised his legs just in time to avoid a mauling. The lion leapt again, digging its claws into the branch and causing it to strain even further.

Rory reached out and climbed over to the next branch as the other one snapped. The lion fell back onto the ground and roared at him as he continued on. He was now directly over the water.

The creature growled at them, and then turned back. It headed back through the door. Somehow he got the feeling even it knew not to go near the water.

Below him an alligator snarled as it swam underneath him. He looked ahead and saw that Joplin was nearing the other side of the swamp where the other door was. Patrick was a few branches ahead of him, seemingly trying his best not to look down.

Rory climbed along to the next branch, keeping his stomach pressed to it and wrapping his arms around it. His stomach churned at the thought of falling into the water. He reached forward to grab the next branch just behind Patrick.

_Crrrraaackk._

Suddenly his branch jerked downward, broken at the base. Panic flashed through Rory. He looked back and the last two strands crack. And then he fell.

Cold swamp water rushed up to meet him as he landed head first into the water. Sheer panic whirling through him he raised his head above it. He heard splashing not far away, causing him to panic more. He looked up and saw Patrick looking down at him.

"Help me!" Rory screamed as he pushed himself further above the water and reached out with his hand. Patrick could reach him if he leaned down. A large dark shape swam towards him from the left. Suddenly it descended under the murky water.

"Patrick please help me!" He pleaded, stretching his hand out even further. Patrick looked down at him terrified and jerked away, abandoning him. "No!" Rory screamed.

Suddenly several teeth plunged into his leg as the alligator grabbed him. "No!" He yelled as it pulled his down. It was the worst pain he ever felt, like five razor sharp knives had been plunged into his leg and were holding him in place. He struggled against it, breaking the surface once more and seeing Patrick's horrible, fear ridden face.

The last thing he saw was a flash of teeth as another alligator lunged at his face.

XXX

The van bounced along the back street as they went along it. Kevin looked around the van. George was bent over the woman with the bitten ankle along with Cindy, who was helping him to apply the bandage. He guessed she had some form of medical training. She seemed to know what she was doing.

Dorian sat opposite him, fishing out some magazines that Josh, the driver, had passed back to them. He handed Kevin over three .45 magazines. They held less ammunition but they packed a bigger punch. He took several nine mil clips for himself.

"He's gonna drop us at Douglas street." He said, "And then he's going to take these people back to the station. We'll have to make our way to Main Street from there." Kevin nodded and Dorian turned to George. "He says he'll drop you at the hospital with the woman along the way."

"No." Said George suddenly, looking up from the woman. "I can't."

"Why not?" Kevin said looking over at him.

"I have to find my wife." George said. "She's at her sister's nearby. Let me off with you two on Douglas Street." Kevin sat back in his street, not saying anything. There was nothing he could say, the man was looking for his wife. He couldn't exactly stop him.

Kevin wondered what was going on at the hospitals within the city. They had been taking admissions all day on account of the riots. Maybe they had turned, just like Will. If this thing was transferred through bites, a hospital would not be the best place to be.

He wondered if Charlie had come back, or Fred.

The van began to slow as they entered Douglas Street. "This is it." Said Dorian standing. Kevin nodded and stood up with him. Mark did as well. Kevin didn't object, if there was as many as they said, they needed all the help they could get.

The van stopped and Kevin placed his hand on the door. He looked at Dorian, who nodded. Nodding back Kevin opened the door. Nothing moved in the street as they both jumped down onto the tarmac. The street was more a back road between two tenement buildings.

Mark stepped out with them, checking around the side of the van with his gun. George leapt down behind them. He looked around the street nervous, but with a determined look on his face.

"Good luck." Kevin said turning to him. "I hope you find her."

"I will." Said George and he set off down the street and disappeared into an alley. Kevin turned around and saw Cindy watching after the alley he had just disappeared into. She looked worried and held her own hands together nervously. Kevin reached around and hit the side of the van.

"Okay." He shouted. Suddenly Alyssa jumped out of the van in front of them. "What the hell are you doing?" Kevin said surprised and a little angry. Why was she coming with them, she could be of no help.

"You guys need all the help you can get." She said turning to him.

"You sure you're not just looking for a story?" Kevin said looking away from her.

"Hey fuck you!" Alyssa spat venomously at him.

"You don't have a weapon." Dorian said in a soft voice. Alyssa raised her arm and waved a gun in front of him.

"Where did you get that?!" Kevin asked, shocked.

"In there." Alyssa simply said.

Kevin just looked at her unbelievably. He looked over to Dorian who just shrugged his shoulders. "She's right Kev," He said, "We need all the help we can get."

"Okay." Kevin said reluctantly and tapped the van again. He and Dorian pushed the doors closed and it moved off down the street.

Kevin looked over at Alyssa who looked right back at him. He wondered if this was some kind of game to her, but he knew it wasn't. This wouldn't be the time for games. The moans of zombies filtered through over the buildings from the street on the opposite side. Main Street.

"Come on." Dorian said heading over to the steps in between one of the tenements that would lead to a bridge overlooking the street. Kevin, Alyssa and Mark followed.

"Don't screw up." Kevin said to Alyssa as they walked towards the steps.

"Same to you." She said to him and walked ahead of him and began mounting the steps. Kevin sighed and walked beside Mark as they headed up as well. Mark didn't say anything, and Kevin was glad. He didn't really want to talk about Alyssa, truth was, he thought the whole thing was slightly immature.

The sounds of zombies got louder as they proceeded up the steps. Dorian and Alyssa reached the top and started to head over to the bridge. They reached the centre and looked out as Mark and Kevin reached the top of the steps. Dorian's jaw dropped.

"What?" Said Kevin and he jogged over to them. Mark following. Alyssa stared straight ahead, eyes wide at what lay down on the street. Kevin looked down and felt all the air rush out of his lungs. "Oh…god."

On the street was an army of zombies. Several hundred filled the street, standing wall to wall. They stretched all the way back to where the street began. In front of them was a barricade made of mounted fences attached to a concrete base. And three cops stood in front of them.

_Three!? Jesus Christ! _Elliot and Eric stood in front of the zombies. Elliot was firing at the zombies as they pushed against the gate. Eric was on his knees frantically wiring something. No doubt the explosive charge. Behind them, shaking like a leaf, stood Harry. He raised his frantically and fired at the zombies. There was no accuracy in his shots, just hysteria.

"We need to get down there." Alyssa said as she looked out over the scene.

"Yeah." Kevin said. He was already turning and started to across the bridge. He heard the others start to do the same. Suddenly there was a whining screech of metal collapsing and clanking on tarmac, followed by gunfire. "Oh god!"

Kevin turned back to look at the street and saw that the zombies had knocked over the barricade and had swarmed over Eric. He saw Elliot backing away while firing with one hand, and holding the detonator with the other. He lowered the gun to pull the fuse.

Without warning one of the zombies in front of him lunged forward and grabbed him around the shoulders, snarling as it leaned forward to deliver the fatal bite. Elliot struggled against it as it pushed him back, unable to defend himself against the horde that stumbled over to him. Raising his hand, he held the detonator above himself.

"Harry!" He yelled and threw the detonator through the air towards him. "Do it! Blow the street!" Those were the last words he managed to get out before the group washed over him and dragged him down.

The detonator landed on the ground in front of Harry, who stumbled back as the zombies began their approach. There was no way in hell he would summon up the courage to blow it. They had to do it.

Kevin started to run to the stairs on the other side of the bridge. If he was fast enough they could reach the detonator before the zombies reached the steps. He bounded down them two at a time, hearing the others behind him.

The zombies had moved through the street faster than he had imagined. It was as if the sight of a feast made them more eager for some moved forward on rigid legs faster than before. One lashed out at him as he reached the bottom of the steps. He dodged the blow and brought his hand up, lashing out with his own fist and knocking the zombie back.

Harry stumbled back and fell, abandoning the detonator, which lay dormant on the road as zombies moved around it. Kevin moved forward, firing at the one nearest to Harry and taking it down. He kept his body low as he dodged two of them who reached out for him. The stench of blood was ever present.

There were other shots echoing out now from the others, firing at the zombies that swarmed over the street. He saw the detonator less than five feet away. He moved for it.

Suddenly something grabbed him from behind. He felt a tight grip on his uniform from one of the undead citizens. He struggled forward but to no avail. He heard the creature behind him start to move forward for a bite. He dived for the detonator.

The creature's grip was yanked off of his uniform as he flew forward, landing right next to the detonator, with zombies all around him. He grabbed it even as they became aware of his presence and started to close in. He hoped the blast wouldn't kill him.

He turned the lever.

At first nothing happened. There were no explosions and the zombies began to bend down to begin their meal. Then the sky lit up. The ground shook, sending all the zombies stumbling away. Seizing his opportunity Kevin rolled away from the group and scrambled to his feet. He began running even as the second explosion caused him to stumble forward. The ground shook again, causing him to fall forward.

He hit the ground hard and started to crawl forward. If the explosion was travelling across the street he had a few precious seconds to make it to safety. Gaining his feet again he sprinted ahead of the zombies, spotting the other ahead already running for safety.

He glanced back and saw an explosion hurl thirty zombies into the air, many smashing into the building on either side of the street. Some were obliterated on the spot. He continued running as the next explosion tore up the ground where he had turned the lever, sending his previous attackers flying into several pieces.

He leapt forward as the final explosion occurred, the momentum pushing him further. He landed with arms shielding his ribs, preventing any cracks. Rubble and debris fell around him even as the heat wave dissipated.

He looked up and saw that the others were okay, even Harry. Although they were now severely dirty with black streaks all over their clothes. He climbed to his feet and turned around to assess the scene.

All of Main Street was gone, several long craters in its place. Tarmac was torn upwards creating accidental walls over certain areas. Two zombies staggered around, those who had escaped the blast radius, but they were quickly put down by two shots. The smell of burning flesh sizzled in the air as the smoke rose higher and began to clear. Burnt body parts lay strewn about the street.

Breathing a sigh of relief Kevin turned and walked towards the others. He held out his hand to Harry, who looked at him confused.

"Radio." Kevin said simply. Harry fumbled for it on his belt and handed it forward with shaky hands.

"RP.D. this is Ryman." Kevin said into the radio. "Main Street destroyed, awaiting instruction." He looked at the others with solemn eyes as he said it. He never thought he would be saying something like that.

"Copy that Ryman." Said a voice on the other end. "We're on our way."

Kevin put down the radio and clipped it to his own belt. Harry said nothing. The survivors stood in silence as the sound of police sirens gradually got louder in the distance.

XXX

The large building in front of them was obviously the holding area for the elephant when it wasn't on display. Joplin looked around confused, he was now totally lost. They had been on the right track until they had run into that Lion. After the alligator swamp they had made their way along another dark path, with both of them convinced something was going to jump out at them. But nothing had.

And now they were standing in a holding area for the elephant that was running around the zoo trying to destroy everything.

"Shit." Said Joplin. "I really don't know where to go." He had gotten a pretty good look at the zoo the last time he was here, but it was mostly from behind the lens of the camera. As the groups camera man he spent most of his time on stories looking through a lens.

But not anymore. The camera was currently lying back on the street where the zombie's had attacked them and killed Dave. The camera had recorded everything, like some horrific home video.

"Over there." He heard Patrick say. He looked over and saw another door over the other side of the stadium. Next to it was a sign that read _To Tram Lines._

Kicking himself for not noticing it earlier he headed towards it. Patrick walked next to him silent. Joplin was happy for the silence actually, he had seen what had happened back at the swamp. How Patrick had just let the alligators rip Rory to pieces rather than help him. Joplin had been trying to climb back to help him himself when they had attacked.

It had been horrible. He didn't know if Patrick had done it out of fear, or if he was living up to that cold bastard persona he always gave off. The train of thought was wiped entirely from his mind by the huge roar that echoed throughout the compound.

As they both turned the elephant broke its way through the wall behind them and ran towards them. Both of them sprinted forward towards the holding area. Joplin knew they couldn't outrun it to the door on time, plus it would probably just come through after them.

They headed for the control room that he could see ahead. The elephant roared behind them as it entered the pen after them. As they approached it they noticed the door to the control room was open.

Joplin dived in first and saw Patrick lie next to him. He kicked the door shut with his foot as the elephant came at them. But that didn't stop it.

The giant creature crashed into the building with such a force that shook the whole enclosure. It roared again and smashed its tusks into the wall. Dust started to fall from the ceiling as cracks began to appear in the wall.

"What do we do?!" Yelled Joplin.

"I don't know!" He heard Patrick call back.

Suddenly the wall gave away and crumbled revealing the elephant in all its unholy glory. It reared up on its hind legs and bellowed into the night. Patrick seized the opportunity and ran. Joplin thought he was running right at it, but he turned to the side and ran around it. It didn't even see him.

Scrambling to his feet Joplin ran to the other side of the elephant even as it descended back onto all four legs. He heard it growl in surprise as it spotted him and he sprinted even faster. He saw Patrick ahead of him, already on course to reach the gate.

Behind him the ground shook as the elephant turned its body towards him. _Oh God no! _He thought. _Come on! Run faster!_

Air whistled behind him, and suddenly he was flying through the air, sent flying by the trunk. The air rushed out of him as he landed hard on his ribs, cracking them. He struggled to breathe and realised that one had punctured his lung. He tried to crawl forward.

"Patrick!" He half screamed, half wheezed out. But Patrick was already opening the door. Not looking back, not caring, just running to save himself. He didn't deserve this. He shouldn't be here. He should be at home, watching TV with a nice cold beer.

"Patrick!" He rasped again and rolled onto his back. He was unable to scream as he saw the elephant rear up onto its hind legs above him, and he realised this was the end.

He managed to scream as the feet descended.

XXX

David scanned the warehouse with his gun in front of him, ready to fire at anything that moved. The warehouse they ran into seemed to be storage for most of the cages for the animals that weren't in use. Hay was still on the ground, as was the smell of must in the air. Must and shit.

Yoko and Kelly were behind him, keeping close in case anything attacked them. They weren't going to take any chances after that elephant.

Something moved in the darkness. He saw it only briefly, but there was definitely something there. He felt the two women behind him tense as moved cautiously to the corner to see what it was. He turned the corner and found his assailant.

"Yo!" Jim said in panic as he came face to face with David's gun. "Don't shoot! Don't shoot! It's me!" David lowered the gun as Jim walked over to them.

"Are you okay?" Asked Kelly.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Said Jim, still evidently panicked. "All the animals in this zoo are fucked up man! The hyenas, they got him."

"Got who?" Said David.

"Riq." Jim said. David saw Kelly's head dip behind them.

"Have you found any of the others?" Asked David, already knowing it was a stupid question.

"No," said Jim shaking his head. "I haven't seen them since the building."

Suddenly there was a clatter from deeper in the warehouse, followed by a deep growl. David tensed and raised the gun.

"Kelly," He whispered, "Where's the exit?"

"Over there." She whispered back, pointing to a door twenty feet ahead of them. "It'll lead straight to the tram lines." He hoped the helicopter was still there and that that greasy bastard Patrick hadn't gotten to it before them. They started to move down the wall very slowly. Yoko crouched down onto the floor and picked up one of the bars from a cage that fallen on the floor. It wouldn't make much of a weapon, but it might help her a bit.

Something leapt onto the cage in front of them, snarling as it did. A lioness. Several patches of skin were missing from its body and blood dripped from its mouth. Whether the blood was its own or a kills he didn't know.

"Move!" He said and fired at it. The shot took it high in the shoulder and it leapt down from the cage onto the floor. The others were already running to the door. David backed away from the lion keeping the gun pointed at it as he went.

The creature advanced forward, but didn't charge. Almost as if it knew that the gun was a weapon that could harm it. Kelly opened the door and ran out, followed by Jim. Yoko stood in the doorway.

"Come on David!" She called to him. He started to move faster, but kept the gun trained on the lion. He moved closer to the door, his every step matched by the lion as it growled its way towards him. When he was within five feet of the door he ran.

He creature chased after him but he was through it quick enough for Yoko to slam the door shut behind him. Even as she did she slid the metal pole through the door handles, locking it in place.

"Clever." David said.

"Thanks." She said back. They both turned around and David's heart leapt when he saw the tram lines, and the helicopter right next to them. He could even see the pilot moving around in the cockpit. And then he saw Patrick running towards it.

"Patrick!" Kelly said running towards him. "Patrick don't!" David, Yoko and Jim ran after her, not noticing the creature that watched them from the roof of the warehouse.

Up ahead Patrick turned and saw them, and started to run faster. He was going to get the pilot to take off without them. David raised his gun at him and yelled out.

"Patrick!" He yelled over at him. He didn't stop or turn around. "Patrick don't make me shoot you!" That got his attention. He turned around and looked at him.

"Then you're gonna have to shoot me in the back mate." He yelled back, "Because I'm leaving!"

"Patrick please!" Kelly called out to him. "Please don't do this Patrick! Please-" Suddenly she was knocked on her side as a large creature leapt on top of her, causing her to land three feet away.

It was a lion, a fully fledged male lion. It had grown to almost twice its normal size and the characteristic pieces of skin missing. It dug its claws into Kelly's arms and lowered its jaws to her.

XXX

Patrick the lion and turned for the chopper. No fucking way was he sticking around. Kelly screamed behind him as the lion mauled her, and a shot rang out. No doubt that fucking jumpsuit moron trying to save her. Only one person mattered in this situation, and that was number one.

That was the philosophy that Patrick lived by, and it had got him this far. Even in his career it had benefited him. While others were trying to work their way up Patrick had been both working and spreading shit about them. Believable shit. It was what got him his job in the first place.

The helicopter was now in front of him. He ran up to the door and slammed on the glass. He saw the pilot, Pete, look up in shock as he saw Patrick.

"Open the fucking door you prick!" Patrick yelled. Pete moved forward and grabbed the handle. He was getting out of here. He was actually going to get the fuck out of here. He had survived. He had done it.

Pete started the helicopter blades as he slid the door open. Patrick started to climb in. Then he was yanked back, falling out of the helicopter, and fell into the arms of the six zombies that had emerged from the next street.

"No! No!" Patrick said as they dragged him to the ground. He felt a searing pain in his arms as they bit into him. "No you fucking bastards! No! Fuck off!" He saw two more charge towards a panicked Pete, who started to raise the chopper off the ground as the zombies began to climb inside.

"NOO!" Patrick screamed even as the zombies began to rip chunks out of him. "YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" He continued screaming even as the zombies began to rip out his intestines.

XXX

The lion turned away from what now remained of Kelly and looked over at David with menacing eyes. The bullet he fired had gone straight into its maine. Blood dripped down as it advanced on him.

David backed away and fired another shot, this one taking it in the upper front leg. The creature roared and leapt at him. He couldn't react in time and he fell to the ground, the gun flying out of his hand. The lion landed on top of him.

A wave of stink washed over him as the creature roared and lunged its head down t him. A shot ran out through the air and the lions head jerked to the side. It released its grip on him and fell with a moan to the side.

David rolled to the side as the creature died next to him, spasming as he did. Yoko ran up to him and handed him his gun back. Jim came up next to him.

"Thanks." David said and Yoko nodded. The sound of screams attracted their attention over to where Patrick was being torn apart by zombies, and to where the helicopter was taking off. Without them.

David felt his heart drop. He barely even felt anything as the elephant smashed through the wall of the zoo and charged out to meet them. Suddenly it turned its head to the side and looked up at the chopper.

The chopper was now spiralling out of control, and David noticed the zombie hanging out of the open door. It fell down through the sky – straight into the elephant. The creature roared as the helicopter crashed into it, metal and blades tearing through its flesh, and fell over. With a flash, the helicopter exploded.

David and the others hit the ground as the explosion rocked the ground around them and sent a fireball into the sky. Debris rained down around them. When he opened his eyes he saw the bloody carcass of the elephant together with the smoking remains of the chopper.

They were alone in the street, even as the ground began to shake again. Looking over to the side they saw more fireballs appear and more flames reach out into the sky, like there was an explosion going straight down a street.

Turning to the side he saw an electronics shop that was broadcasting the news. The owner was nowhere to be seen. On the TV David saw a burning street being recorded from a helicopter. Standing in front of it was the same cop he had seen back at the bar.

_A/N: And so Wild Things and Outbreak are done. I wrote this one really quick because I'm going to Australia for three weeks in like five hours, so I really wanted to get this written quick, because this was a really fun chapter to write. Complete slaughter is so much fun *does evil Joker laugh*. _

_Anyway so sorry if it seemed a bit rushed near the end, I'm really running low on time here. And don't expect any more updates for at least 3 weeks, unless I write something in Oz. Which I might. But anyway, please review if you can and happy Christmas to all my readers. Have fun._


	12. A Forsaken Hope

**Chapter Twelve: A Forsaken Hope**

George made his way down the empty street in front of him. It was eerily quiet in comparison to the war zone he had been in just five minutes prior. He studied the apartments on either side of him. He was now in the downtown area of the city.

Cathy's sister, Melanie, lived in the downtown area of Raccoon City. In particularly the area where you wouldn't want to walk down the street alone at night, or at all. Melanie had never been successful, like George and Catherine were, and it drove a constant wedge between them. Cathy and her were fine, it was just George she had a problem with.

He wasn't sure why. He figured she had some deep rooted resentment to any man who looked successful and well off. He assumed it was due to some previous relationship she had been in before. Whatever it was, she had always thought Cathy was too good for George, but then again he guessed no man would ever be good in her eyes.

He had only been over to her apartment on a few occasions, but it wasn't hard to find. He could see it now, on the far end of the street.

A few street lights flickered casting dancing lights on the destruction ahead of him. The street had been attacked by those…creatures, but now they were long gone. The only evidence of their existence the destruction in front him.

Cars were crashed into walls; blood literally ran down the street, a bike, glass, torn clothes and even the occasional severed limb lined the street. But the perpetrators of the carnage and horror were gone. Almost as if they had been sucked back into hell.

_It's strange,_ thought George, _they can be everywhere one minute, and then disappear in an instant. _That added to the uneasiness that plagued him as he headed down the street. He felt as if they were watching him from the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. He knew they had little or no reasoning power, from what he had seen, but he still felt as if they were watching him.

A scream drifted through the air from behind the block of apartments to his left. The sound of breaking glass followed. He figured they were still close, if they stayed in big groups. He wondered how they travelled, did they travel as one, as a pack, or was it just coincidence that so many of them could be in one place.

The apartment was only about fifty feet away. As he continued towards it he could hear a wet noise up ahead. Like something slimy moving inside something. It sounded similar to a surgery.

The sound got closer as eh approached the block in front of him. It seemed to be coming from around the corner. The noise became clearer as he approached. It sounded like someone eating. It was probably one of those creatures. A ghastly, frustrated moan confirmed his suspicions.

He looked at the apartment, now about thirty feet away. The creature would probably see him when he passed, but if he ran he could reach the apartment complex before it even had a chance to head out onto the street. He took a breath and moved forward.

Turning his head he saw one lone person feeding on a corpse. The man looked up at him and seemed to snarl, or maybe it was trying to moan with a mouth full of flesh and muscle, either way it had spotted him. The man got to his feet and George turned to run when he suddenly saw something to his right.

Looking back the way he had came he saw three more creatures shuffling their way towards him. How had he not heard them! Over on the other side of the road he saw even more of them emerging from the shadows between buildings. How did they know he was there? Had they seen him? Could they smell him? How could all of them know? Did they notice when another one of them saw someone?

He turned and ran towards the apartment. Moans seemed to come from all around him as the zombies- _No,_ George thought, _That's impossible! _ Whatever they were they seemed to be coming from all around him.

Ten feet to go.

He could see more dark figures moving in the shadows of the street lights. A final push and he reached the apartment block. He noticed the door was open as he ran up the stairs to the entrance. Behind him the creatures shuffled onwards towards him, though they were now at a safe distance.

The hallway was dark; the light on the ceiling flickered casting eerie shadows over the dark green tiled walls. He knew anything could be moving in there, but didn't, couldn't slow down now, not when Cathy was so close. It didn't look like there had been any struggle in the lobby, but all that was down there was a maintenance room and the letter boxes.

Cathy's sister's apartment was located on the top floor of the three story building. "Cathy!" George called as he started to run up the stairs and suddenly he stopped short.

The first floor wall had a large streak of blood running down it, leading to a huge pile on the floor complete with chunks of skin littering the ground. He could only imagine someone had been caught by a group of them and pushed to the ground. What a horrible way to die.

Alarm bells rang in his head as he noticed there was no body, but he didn't register it. Up ahead he saw a door that had been forced open. Blood was streaked along the walls around it. Inside he could hear a moan. He realised raising his voice might not be the best idea for him to take.

More importantly, if those things had attacked the other apartments, had they attacked Melanie's? _Oh god Cathy, _George thought, _please be safe. Please._

He creeped along the hallway towards the next flight of stairs, which went in a spiral, and meant he would have to pass by the open apartment. The door opened into a hallway which veered sharply right. He couldn't tell if there was anything still inside. A mirror was mounted on the wall on which he saw his own terrified reflection. He could hear something or someone moving inside. He took his chances.

He ran past the door as quietly as he could and leapt up the stairs two at a time. No noises followed him so he assumed he had sneaked past successfully. The second floor didn't look as bad as the first floor, maybe none of them had gone that far. None of the apartments were open, but there was a trail of blood lining the floor. It twisted around to the stairwell and continued up the stairs.

It looked like someone had walked, bleeding heavily, and had just continued on. But the amount of the blood on the floor meant that they had lost most if not all of their blood. The thick river which stretched ahead of him suggested whoever it was had lost about two pints. They would surely be dead. Maybe those creatures had dragged someone along who had died to feed on them in some dark corner.

Moving along the landing he followed the blood up the third floor where Melanie's apartment was, and to Cathy. His heart stopped in his chest as he reached the top step.

The floor was a wreck. Several of the doors were broken open and blood seemed to ooze from the walls. A severed lay in the corner where it had been ripped off. Again there was no corpse, or no creatures. He looked ahead and to his horror saw Melanie's door.

It had been forced inwards, the wood on the door had broken inwards and given way to whatever or whoever had tried to get it. He hurried over to it, all thoughts on being quiet leaving his body as he ran over to the door.

Inside he saw a desk had been pushed up against the door in what looked like a makeshift barricade. But it hadn't held. Spots of blood adorned the door and barricade. A piece of clothing still hung to the wood on the door where it had been torn, probably by the assailant.

He stepped over the threshold, making his way over the barricade. A bit of wood cracked very loudly under his foot as he did, but he didn't care. He had to find Cathy, she had to be safe.

The hallway was streaked with blood leading to the far door at the back, the bedroom as George remembered it. The living room looked untouched as he walked past it; the only sign of anything wrong was the constant static the television gave off.

"Cathy!" George whispered, hoping for some kind of a reply. "Cathy!"

A wet noise came in return to his whisper. The same noise he had heard out in the street; the sound of feeding.

"No…" George said as he ran toward the bedroom where the noise had come from. The bed room door was closed. He eased it open. The sound suddenly intensified. The room was dark except for the lamp that was still in place on the bed stand. He couldn't see anyone.

Suddenly he saw movement from the other side of the bed. A head, bobbing up and down. The horrible noise of feeding continued in unison with the head. Slowly George started to walk around to the other side of the bed. _Please no. Dear god no._

He rounded the bed and felt all the feeling in his body leave him. Melanie was crouched on the ground devouring the corpse that lay beneath her. Catherine.

"No."

George didn't even notice he had said anything until Melanie jerked her head around at the noise and saw him. She growled at him, blood and tissue flowing out of her mouth. She rose to her feet. The light from the window to his left cast her face in a yellow glow from the street light. It made her face all the more horrific.

"No…"

She started towards him, bearing her teeth as she did. George wanted to react but he couldn't, his body was numb. He couldn't move. She got closer, close enough to reach out now. Still he couldn't move. Her hands touched his face.

The touch of her cold hands was enough to jolt the feeling back into his body and lunged forward to bite his face. He raised his arms grabbed onto her shoulders. Melanie wasn't a particularly strong woman, but she seemed stronger now in her new state of being, but he managed to hold her back.

She surged forward again, sending him stumbling backwards and out of her grasp. He fell to the floor at the bottom of the bed and quickly scrambled to his feet as Melanie lunged at him again. He raised his arms to stop her, and pushed her back with all the force he could muster.

She seemed to fly backwards through the air, as George noticed he had pushed her a lot harder than he thought, and then she slammed into the window behind her. The glass shattered on impact George watched as she fell backwards through the window and out of sight.

He stood there stunned for a second until he heard the thud from below. He rushed over to the window and looked down onto the street below. On the street below he not only saw Melanie's now dead corpse, but that the rest of the creatures outside had reached the building and were now making their way inside.

He turned around and noticed the huge open wound on Cathy's chest. With her eyes closed she looked almost peaceful as she lay mutilated on the floor, but George knew that her death had probably been one of the worst deaths imaginable.

He tore his eyes away from her. She was dead, he had failed. He had screwed up, again. He should never have let her go to his sister's. He should never have let their relationship get so bad to the point where she needed to go to her sister's.

Moans filtered up through the hallway into the apartment breaking him from his thoughts. He had to get out. _Why?_ A small voice in the back of his head asked. _Why should I? What have I got to live for now?_

Perhaps it was a deliberate intention not to listen to the voice, or maybe it was a basic survival instinct, but George headed from the room and walked over to the door leading back out of the apartment. He walked over to the stairwell and looked down.

The creatures were already starting to make their way up the stairs. From the ground floor it would take him about five minutes to reach him. He still had time. On the first floor he saw another creature move out of the apartment that he had sneaked past, as if the arrival of others had stirred it from whatever it was doing. He now had even less time.

Turning around he nearly fell back over the railing as he found himself less that five feet away from a woman who stared back at him. He looked down and to his horror saw that her entire stomach and parts of her intestine had been ripped out. Blood dripped from her wounds onto the floor, creating the same trail he had seen on the way up.

She was dead. She was dead and yet here she was standing in front of him. The realisation suddenly dawned on him. _These people are dead! _He thought. _They are zombies! _It sounded absurd and yet here it was in front of his eyes. That must have been the person who he thought was killed on the first floor.

"Oh my god!" George said as reached out to him. He staggered back and headed to Melanie's apartment and staggered back over the barricade. She must have been in one of the other apartments when he had come up and not seen him. He backed away down the hallway of Melanie's apartment as the woman appeared in the shattered doorway.

There had to be another way out. He looked around desperately, looking in the living room as the woman started to cross the barricade. He looked into the kitchen.

_There!_

Through the kitchen window he saw the railings of a fire escape. Suddenly there was movement to his left. He turned – and saw Cathy standing in the bedroom doorway looking at him. She almost thought she was still alive had it not been for the vacant look in her eyes.

"Cathy no…" He said as started towards him. She moaned from deep within her blood flooded throat, causing it to gurgle. George back into the kitchen as both the zombies moved towards him. Quickly he closed the door and ran over to the window. He raised it and looked back at the door.

Cathy and the woman were already banging against it, it would give in a matter of seconds. "I'm so sorry Cathy." George said. Almost as if in response the door was flung open and Cathy staggered into the kitchen, her eyes fixed on George.

He quickly clambered out of the window and onto the fire escape. Reaching up he pulled the window down again, creating a shield and him and his former wife. "I'm so sorry." George said as he turned away and started to head down the steps, not really sure where he was going. Behind him, Cathy banged on the glass as she watched him.

George reached the bottom and started walking off into the night. He didn't know where he was going, all he knew was that the people of Raccoon City were dying and coming back to life. And now, his wife was one of them.

_A/N: Okay, back again. Sorry it took so long yadda yadda yadda. This chapter was kind of short in comparison to some other ones, I was going to make it a lot longer and go back to what Kevin was doing but I decided to do that next chapter and jus have this chapter about George and his now dead wife. She'll be back though. Plus I just thought I should submit an update._

_I wouldn't recommend holding your breath for a quick update after this, especially since Resi 5 is out in Friday. My limited edition better arrive at work or I conduct experiments on people!!!_

_Anyways, hope you all enjoy this chapter and Resi 5 when it comes out wherever you all are. I can't wait to see Wesker back in this one. It should be awesome. _


	13. Evacuation

**Chapter Thirteen: Evacuation**

Main Street was a smoking ruin by the time the reinforcements showed up. _At least there's no zombies._ Thought Kevin as the three squad cars pulled up. Out of them stepped six officers, one of them was Marvin. By the way they moved as they surveyed the street Kevin guessed they had a fairly good idea what was going on.

"You guys all missed the party." Kevin said as they walked up to him.

"How bad is it?" Marvin asked. Kevin noticed he was carrying a sheet of paper in his hand, he didn't know what it was though.

"Uh bad." Kevin said. "The whole city's going insane."

"Not the whole city." Marvin said. "At least not yet. Take a look at this." He walked over to the bonnet of his car and unfolded the sheet of paper. Kevin now saw that it was a map of the city. Several red X's were marked on certain areas of it.

"Okay." Marvin said spreading the map with his hand while the others crowded around. "So far all the reports of these attacks have been coming in from certain areas of the city. They range from here," He pointed to one of the X's, "All the way over to here." He pointed to the last one.

"So basically all of the Cider District?" Kevin asked. The X's on the map spread over at least quarter of the city.

"Yes," Marvin said, "And a little outside it. Basically," He drew a line around the X's. "This whole area is…" He trailed off suddenly. "Where all these attacks are occurring." He said finally. Kevin guessed he had absolutely no idea what the hell was actually going on in there.

"So," He continued, "We're going to have to barricade those areas off."

"What?!" Said Kevin, barely able to hear what was being said. "That's over a quarter of the city."

"And if we don't act now it'll be the whole city within twelve hours!" Marvin said back.

"There are still innocent people in there." Kevin protested. "Who are still normal!"

"My family is in there." Said Mark. Kevin and Marvin both turned silently to look at him. Suddenly Kevin felt incredibly uncomfortable.

"We're going to evacuate as many people as we can from these areas." Marvin said, "Your family will get out in time."

"When?" Mark asked.

"As soon as possible." Marvin said back, empathy in his voice. "Believe me I don't want to make these decisions, but if we don't act now this could all get a lot worse. Hundreds could be dead already by whatever this is. We have to act now."

Mark nodded and seemed to step back, as though coming down from his own position of speaking.

"What about the hospital?" Alyssa said, "The only hospital within all of Raccoon is located in the heart of that barricaded zone, how are people supposed to get there?" For the first time that night, Kevin found himself agreeing with Alyssa.

"We're going to air lift supplies into the hospital when it's needed." Marvin said, "We've already spoken with the staff on call and they're prepared. They're going to set up other barricades around the hospital to keep these things out. From what I hear they're not too smart. Also we're going to set up temporary hospitals and evac shelters around the city for anyone who we get out in time. I've already made the call for the National Guard or the army to come and help us."

It made sense. Although he didn't agree with the plan it did make sense, and he didn't have any better suggestions. "How long will it take?" He asked resigning to the plan.

"We aim to have all the areas barricaded by dawn." Marvin said. "And the hospitals and shelters should be up and running by midday." He turned to look at everyone who was crowded around the car. "We have less than twelve hours to evacuate a quarter of the city, barricade it off and set up hospital and housing shelters. Let's get to work."

XXX

It had just gone 3 am as Arnold Leister flew over the canal and further into the Cider district of Raccoon City. The evacuation was so far going according to plan, with over half of the area locked off. Over two hundred people had so far been evacuated from whatever the hell was going on down there. He still wasn't up to speed, all he knew was that a lot of people were acting crazy and killing others. As if that wasn't unsettling enough, the voices which came in over the radio chatter only made it worse.

People down on the ground were saying these people were dead. Others were saying they were zombies. A few even thought it was the apocalypse. Those were the units that were still alive. At least fifteen officers were dead so far that he knew off, and five of them had happened in the last hour. Miguel, a guy who had been at the station years before Arnold had joined, was dead. He had radioed in saying he was going to check an apartment building in a street that was seemingly deserted. He never replied back and Marvin and a few others had found him forty five minutes ago.

Then there was Kristen, the pretty new girl. She had been trying to lead a group of civi's out of the area when they had been ambushed some of the crazies. He had heard her die over the radio, as had everyone else. She had screamed right until the end. He was sure the memory of those screams would never leave him now.

Maybe those crazies were zombies. They sure seemed to fit the profile. From what he'd heard they moved slower than snails, but they just wouldn't die. No one could find a way to put them down, until Ryman had radioed in saying to shoot for the head. That seemed to do it. It made no sense, none of it did.

He thought of Jenny and Sarah, safe at home on the other side of the city. Jenny was probably still up, watching what little news stations were reporting on this, or whatever news stations were still running. Sarah would hopefully still be asleep. They hadn't told her what was going on, partly because they themselves had no idea, but also because they didn't want to expose her to it. No child should be exposed to whatever the hell was going on here, especially such a young child who still believed in Santa Clause.

But if they managed to stop whatever this was by the barricades, the first thing he would do is get them as far away from the city as possible. He heard a few other people suggesting that over the radio, although some were worried that this might be happening at other cities as well. And if it was global, then he would just fly them as far away from all signs of civilisation as possible. Maybe go to the mountains or a dense forest somewhere. That was the advantage of having a helicopter; they could go anywhere they wanted.

As he flew over the streets he could see a few people running, aided by a few cops who fired back at the assailants who pursued them. Sure enough that didn't stop them. They just kept on slugging their way towards them. Luckily the group was far enough away from them for them to be a real threat. They'd be past the barricade in minutes.

He flew further into the Cider District and turned on the air horn, once again saying the message he had been saying for the last hour. "This is the Raccoon City Police Department. If there is anyone down there, please stay calm and head towards the city centre. Officers are waiting to take you to safety. This area of the city is going to be barricaded soon. Please, everyone down there please head the nearest point of evacuation."

He couldn't see anyone as he flew over. He almost felt lucky he was in a helicopter and not at ground level. Those people, zombies or whatever they were, were definitely not something he wanted to see up close.

Suddenly his radio buzzed as someone made contact.

"Arnold! Arnold can you hear me?!" Came a panicked voice over the radio that he recognised as Arthur Cooper.

"Yeah Arthur I hear you." Said Arnold into his headset. He couldn't see him anywhere on the street level, but he guessed Arthur could see him somewhere. Below him he noticed a few of those people stagger through the street.

"Look we are pinned down on Carlson Street!" Arthur said. Gunshots now began to echo through the transmission. "I have twelve people here and we need an immediate pickup. There's too many for us to handle!"

_Shit, _thought Arnold. That would mean he'd have to go down to the ground. But that wasn't what worried him. It wasn't a very big helicopter he was piloting. It wasn't meant to carry a lot of people. He could probably fit twelve in, but he didn't know if the chopper could support the weight. He guessed he'd have to try.

"Do you read me we need an immediate evac now!" Arthur yelled down the radio. He sounded like he was beginning to get desperate. Arnold turned the chopper to the right and headed over to Carlson St.

"I read you Arthur." Arnold said. "On the way." He could already see brief flashes of light coming from the direction of Carlson, so he guessed that was them.

"Thank Christ!" Arthur said, "We aren't gonna last much longer down here."

As he flew over the he noticed more people, _or zombies_, he thought, moving through the streets. They all seemed to be moving in the same direction, as if they all knew that something was close.

As he turned into Carlson Street he realised he wasn't too far off. A group of at least fifty of them was heading through the street, and one hundred feet away where the street came to a dead end against an apartment block, was Arthur and a group of civilians. Arthur stood aiming at the people that were heading towards them, but they were more than likely too far away to get a shot.

He noticed that Arthur was the only cop in the whole group. He remembered Marvin saying earlier that everyone had to travel in groups of two at least. He didn't want to think about what had happened to his partner.

As he flew towards them he saw Arthur waving his arms to signal him over. He began to lower the chopper as he moved towards them. He wouldn't have time to put it completely down, but he could stop it a few feet off the ground. That would be enough.

Arthur and a few people were already running towards him. Their assailants continued to advance, coming closer. Arnold stopped the chopper as close to them and as far away from the creatures as he could and started to lower it. Arthur ran forward and started to fire down the street at their attackers.

Even before he had come with five feet of the ground Arthur ran up and opened the door. "Quick get in!" He yelled and fired back at the creatures, which were now close enough for Arnold to get a good look at them, and he immediately wished he hadn't.

The one furthest in front was completely missing all of her scalp! Like it had been ripped off. And now she was walking down the street and didn't seem to notice it. There was that, and the blood that seeped from her stomach and drenched her shirt with a crimson glow. There was no doubt about it, these people were dead. They were zombies.

People started to climb into the helicopter as he put it down to within two feet. The zombies were now within twenty feet of them. Most of the people climbing in were still in their pyjamas or bed clothing. They had probably been asleep through the initial wave of attacks and woken up either to the police sirens and calls, or to the carnage going on outside.

The rest climbed in and Arthur started making his way back. Suddenly Arnold noticed someone running out of the one of the buildings in front of him. It was a man wearing black trousers and a shirt that Arnold guessed would have been blue, if it wasn't stained with blood. He held a hand up to his neck as he ran. Arnold noticed the zombies were now within ten feet of the chopper.

"Wait!" The man shouted as he ran towards them. "Please!" Arthur was already sliding the door shut when he heard him and stopped. He leaned out and saw him and moved the door further open.

"Come on quick!" Arthur yelled at him. Behind him, Arnold could hear a few people start to panic.

"Just go!" A woman shouted at him. "They're coming for us!" Arnold just turned and looked at the door.

The zombies were five feet away when he finally reached the chopper, Arthur and another woman leaned out to help him. Suddenly his foot slipped on the rail as he climbed up and he fell back onto the ground. Whatever hope Arnold had for him disappeared.

The zombies reached out to him as he stood back up and flung himself at the helicopter. Arnold and the woman reached out and grabbed him again. So did the zombies. Both found themselves pulling against the man, Arthur and the woman to save him; the zombies to devour him.

"Take off!" Arthur yelled. Arnold complied, realising that might help to wrench the man free of them. Even as he started to rise more zombies reached out grabbed the man. He slid out of Arthur's grasp, but not the woman's. With a scream she found himself being pulled out of the chopper along with the man. Arthur reached out for her but she was already gone.

Both of them fell down into the mass of zombies as Arthur slid the door closed on the chopper. _Two people gone, _Arnold thought, _just like that._ Behind him he noticed several people had started crying.

"Get us the fuck out of here!" Arthur yelled up to him, and Arnold was only happy to comply.

XXX

"Hello. Is there anyone in there?"

Ada raised her head to the door at the sound of a human voice outside. She hadn't expected anyone to still be alive. She was still in her room attempting to wait out the initial infection. She didn't expect it to be over already.

"We're with the Raccoon City Police Department. We're here to take you to safety."

_Well I'll be damned... _Ada thought. She had expected to wait several more hours or so, but it seemed that the city was attempting to take control of the infection. It was commendable, plus it might make her job that little bit easier.

She stood up from her bed and walked over to the door. "Hang on." She said as she began moving the various pieces of furniture she had piled against it. When all were removed she opened the door and was greeted to the sight of three police officers along with five civilians. So there had been survivors after all.

"Mam," the first officer said, "We've managed to clear out the Inn and we're evacuating everyone out of here. We suggest you come with us. It might not be safe here for very long." Ada nodded and stepped out of her room. She saw a few people that she recognised from earlier. There was a woman whom she had seen in the lobby when the infected first attacked, and she recognised another man from when she first checked in. She assumed everyone else was dead.

"Marvin," said the officer into his radio, "We've rounded up all the survivors we could. We're on our way out."

A hissed "Okay," was heard over the radio and the officer turned to address all of them.

"Okay, there are more police units outside." He said, "They're watching the entrance, but as soon as we get out we're going to have to make a run for the van that's waiting to take us back to the station. Stay close and make sure no one wonders off. Let's go."

They started to head down the hallway that lead to the stairs. Ada saw a corpse lying against the wall as they went, a fresh bullet wound in its head. The cops had obviously figured out how to kill the infected. Ada could use them to get out of the inn and into the streets, and then she would split and make her way to the marshalling yard. With a bit of luck her contact Dr. Birkin might still be alive, if not she would just contact Wesker and see what other options were available.

"Excuse me?" Ada said as she walked up to the cop at the back of the group.

"Yes?" He said as they started to descend the stairs. Ada noticed blood smeared along the walls as they went down.

"Whatever's going on; has it spread through the whole city?" Ada asked. She wanted to be careful with her choice of words. She didn't want to let on that she knew more about the current situation than they did.

"No thank god." The cop said as they reached the second floor. "It seems to be confined to this area of the city, so we're setting up barricades and getting everyone out."

"Has it spread to the industrial area?" Ada asked. She wanted to know if her route to the marshalling yard would be clear or not.

"No." The cop said, "It hasn't spread that far." Ada nodded. "Why?" The cop asked, causing her to look up at him. "Is there someone there you're worried about?"

"My boyfriend." Ada said quickly. "He works at the steelworks." Technically most of that wasn't a lie. Before Wesker had contacted her she had been approached by an individual wanting information about Umbrella, for what he didn't say. She had met him in Chicago and he had told her about a bunch of stuff Umbrella supposedly did to people. At the time she had brushed him off as a paranoid lunatic (until Wesker had told her everything at least), but with the sum of money he had offered her, she had humoured him.

She had gotten close to a specific worker at the Umbrella plant there called John; she had never learnt his second name. There really hadn't been much point. She had feigned an interest in him that had developed into a relationship for a month. And then John suddenly disappeared off the map. He told Ada the night before that he was being transferred to another Umbrella base in Raccoon.

He had told her he wanted to try a distance relationship, to which Ada said she needed time to think. She didn't really; she was willing to ditch John within a seconds notice. He was just too sappy for her. She had half expected him to say he was in love with her. But she had said it because she didn't know what her employer at the time had wanted her to do.

But she never heard from him again. She hadn't been able to contact him and he never contacted her. Money stopped coming into her account as well. She realised now that Umbrella had probably taken some kind of action against him. She hadn't heard from John since either, which was fine by her. And she had learned squat about Umbrella anyway.

She had kept all this quiet from Wesker though. She hadn't thought reason to bring it up, plus, if Wesker knew as much as he did he probably already knew she had looked into Umbrella. Maybe that was why he hired her.

"We have phones at the station that you can use to call anyone you're worried about." The cop said. Ada nodded in acknowledgment. They reached the ground floor and walked out onto the lobby.

There had been no attempt to clean up the slaughter that had occurred earlier. Bodies and blood lay strewn across the floor. She turned her head and looked into the restaurant. Blood was everywhere along with human limbs. She noticed that the door to the bar had been shut. It had probably been done to hide whatever was inside. Ada had a fair idea though, after what she'd seen earlier.

"I wouldn't look if I were you." The cop said as they headed past towards the door. She could see red and blue flashes from the police lights that were outside.

"I was there." Ada said, "I saw it happen."

"It was horrible." Said the woman she recognised from earlier. The horror of what she had seen was evidently still weighing down on her.

Cool air nipped at her arms as they walked out into the street. She noticed by the blue streaks on the horizon that dawn was not for off. _Not bad, _she thought, _the city made it through the first night. Now let's see if it survives the second._ She saw several officers standing behind the van all aiming their guns down the street. A few of them fired at unseen assailants.

"Okay let's go!" The first cop said and they all took off running towards the open van. Ada followed them. As they started to pile into the van she suddenly changed direction and started running down the street.

"Hey!" She heard someone call after her. "What are you doin'?!" She didn't look back or reply. She simply continued on and disappeared into one of the alleyways.

XXX

"Did you hear that?" Yoko said as she, David and Jim walked down the street.

"What?" David said turning around. Since the zoo they had continued on, dodging zombies wherever they could and tried to find help.

"Attention" came a distant voice on a loud speaker, "This is the Raccoon City Police Department. If there is anyone out there please head in this direction. We can take you to safety."

They all stood in silence for a few seconds. They were hardy expecting to hear anyone alive in what seemed to be zombie central. Finally Jim broke the silence.

"What the hell are we waiting for?!" He said stepping forward. "Let's get the fuck outta here."

"Yeah." Yoko said walking after him. David merely grunted and headed after them. He didn't know if it was a great idea to go to the cops. They might not be able to handle whatever the hell it was that was going down. Still, it was better than nothing.

As he walked back up to them there was an explosion from the building right next to them. David flung himself to the ground as the wave washed over him. He could hear other noises in the explosion as well but he wasn't sure what it was. He opened his eyes and looked up.

In front of him stood a zombie currently in the process of reaching down to him. David reacted on instinct. He rolled to the side and came up with an elbow to the zombie's face, causing it to stagger back. He then clenched his knuckles and drove two punches straight into the creature's chest and spun around to deliver a final kick to the abdomen. The zombie was fell backwards and landed with a wet slap on the road.

Looking up he noticed that the street was now clogged with zombies. He couldn't see Yoko or Jim anywhere. Most of them started to turn their heads towards him. "Shit." David said. He turned and started running down the street away from them. At least he was alone now.

XXX

"Are we almost done?" Kevin asked Marvin as walked over to him at the barricade. The night had been hell, and it was beginning to take its toll of him. Not only that, but it was something like twenty two hours since he had last slept.

"Yeah." Marvin said. "This is the last barricade. All the units have evacuated everyone they can. Anyone still in there is being advised to go the hospital."

"How are they doing in there?" Kevin asked.

"They're barricading several areas of the car park to keep most of them out." Marvin said. "We're air lifting a couple of officers in to help. Apparently a lot of people who were there earlier are starting to turn into these things."

That made sense, most of the people from the riots would have gone to the hospital. If they had whatever was turning these people into zombies, they would most likely turn at the hospital.

"We need to find out what this is and what's caused it." Marvin said. "I've already put in a call to the CDC to ask for help."

"Is this happening elsewhere?" Kevin said.

"No. I called a few other cities and nothing like this is going on there." Marvin said back.

"So this is ground zero for whatever's going on." Kevin said. He was slightly relieved to hear it. At least it meant this wasn't the apocalypse. _Well...it could be if we don't act quick enough._

Behind Marvin he saw Mark walk up to them. Marvin turned to him. "I asked one of the officers and he's willing to take you back to the station. I know you must be anxious to find out if your family is there." Mark nodded and Marvin walked over to him and pointed out the car.

Kevin had known Mark was concerned. He could see it. The guy had helped them, but he could tell his thoughts were on his family. Kevin couldn't blame him either. Alyssa had been willing to help too, so Marvin had asked her to go and help with the set up of one of the evacuation centres. As far as Kevin knew that was where she still was.

He stepped back as the last truck was backed into place to complete the barricade. Marvin had said there were going to be a small group of officers at each one until reinforcements arrived. He couldn't see any zombies in sight, which was definitely a good thing.

_If we're careful, _Kevin thought, _we just might get through this._

XXX

Ada had managed to sneak past the final barricade before it was completed. No one had even noticed her as she went. Her path to the marshalling yard had been rather simple after that. She had seen a few helicopters fly overhead and had seen a few squad cars on the road, but apart from that the uninfected streets were quiet. She guessed everyone else was still asleep and yet to wake up to the threat that had engulfed the city. It was a hell of a thing to wake up to.

Streaks of sunlight were beginning to pierce the sky, telling her dawn was in full effect as she walked into the marshalling yard. As she had feared there was no one waiting for her. The office to her right was empty and a tram stood still on the turntable in the middle, but there was no Birkin. She walked onto the turntable so she could see the whole area just to be sure. Still no Birkin.

Sighing she reached to her thigh and brought up her PDA. She pushed the call button. She wondered if Wesker was still awake at this time. Did he sleep for that matter? Or was he available right now?

Her questions were answered when the screen clicked on showing Wesker sitting in exactly the same position in exactly the same chair she had left him in over twelve hours ago. Had he even moved?

"What is it?" He said.

"I'm at the marshalling yard." Ada said. "Birkin isn't here." She saw Wesker click something on his armrest.

"You're directly above the labs right now." He said. "The turntable can be used as a lift to access them. You can activate it with a code."

_Well that's handy, at this rate I'll be done and out of here by midday. _She walked over to the control panel at the back of the tram. She saw Wesker doing something on his chair.

"Try six, three double two." Wesker said to her looking up. She nodded and typed the code into the number pad that was on the panel. She stood back waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. She tried it again. Still nothing.

"It's not working." She said looking down at her PDA.

"It's possible that if there was an attack on the labs that the power might be out." Wesker said. _Of course it is, _Ada thought. "What condition is the city in?"

"They're doing well." Ada said. "They managed to quarantine the infected areas of the city and keep the infected at bay."

"Is the hospital in the quarantined zone?" Wesker asked. What did that have to do with anything?

"Yes." She said.

"There is a route that runs to the labs underneath the hospital." Wesker said. "It runs via the sewer." Ada sighed. She really didn't like the idea of going to the hospital right now. In a city where the dead were coming back to life, going to the place where people go to die might not be the best idea. "There are other routes but I'm not familiar with them." Wesker said, "But someone else might be."

"Who?" Ada said and noticed Wesker was fiddling with his armrest again. It looked like he was scrolling through something.

"There is a man called Ben Bertolucci." Wesker said, still scrolling through whatever he was looking at. "He's a journalist. He might know another way." He's gotten a hold of from pretty sensitive information about the police chief recently that links him back to Umbrella."

"You think he knows?" Ada asked. She wasn't inclined to believe that this journalist would really have found the location to Umbrella's secret lab. Information like that was way above the level of journalists.

"I think it's a fair assumption." Wesker said looking up again. "Since Umbrella have ordered him to be killed for knowing too much." Ada raised her eyebrows at this. Maybe he did know more than she thought. "The infection in Raccoon may delay their actions against him. Either way, I'd find him before they do. He works at the Raccoon Press. Good luck."

With that her screen went black again. So like Wesker. She guessed he'd contact her again when he needed her. Or she'd contact him when she found the sample. But for now, she needed to find this journalist Bertolucci, if he was still alive. Ada turned, sighing and headed back to entrance to the marshalling yard. This job was already proving to be a lot more complicated than she had anticipated.

_A/N: Okay back again. I wanted to show how the city manages to survive against the infection, for a while at least. Since it's now only the 25__th__, and the city has to last till the 1__st__, but I have the outline for the rest of the fic out, so I know how I'm going to do it. _

_I also brought back Ada in this chapter to show her progression through the city. And I realised I forgot to mention John so I tried to put him in via the most believable way. So hopefully it works and doesn't seem like I'm going "Oh but by the way this also happened". Be nice if it doesn't work as well as I'd hoped. _

_On another note…RESI 5 ROCKS!!!! I thought it was awesome, I mean sure on harder modes the AI annoys me a bit (why does she shoot me in the back..?) but apart from that I love it. I know some people have a problem with the way it ended but I thought that was the only natural way to end it. I won't reveal any spoilers for those yet to play it. Although I am gonna rant about something. Through various net sites…okay youtube, I was looking peoples comments for the end of RE5, specifically about someone who died. And I see a bunch of people saying that person is not dead…HE'S DEAD! GET OVER IT! HE GOT HIS FREAKIN HEAD BLOWN OFF  
! HE'S DEAD PEOPLE!_

_Geez, I thought I was a fanboy, but some of these people put like "Did you notice how the rockets miss *****" and "******* will be back in the next one." It just drives me mad. But that's people, not the game. Anyway as always please review and I'll see you on the next one. _


	14. Dawn

**Chapter Fourteen: Dawn**

George wasn't sure what it was that made him go to the hospital, but somehow that was where he found himself. The light of the new day hadn't done much to chase away the horrors of the previous night. The moans of the dead still rose up from seemingly everywhere, threatening to engulf and swallow all who were near.

The events after he had left Melanie's apartment had been a haze. He remembered leaving the apartment and then his mind had seemingly detached from his body. He had been aware that he was walking, but he wasn't controlling it. He had been in a sort of dream, trying to come to terms with losing the one person who meant everything to him.

He had been aware of those creatures as he had walked through the alleys, but none of them had been close enough to pose as a threat. And the ones that did, he just moved to the side and avoided. He knew he shouldn't have been so reckless, but part of him didn't care. Part of him had wanted them to reach out and claim him, but a stronger part had made sure he avoided them. If they had got the drop on him however and he hadn't been able to flee, he didn't think he would have panicked. He would have welcomed it almost.

Everything that had transpired; the evacuation, the barricading, the deaths – all of it had just seeped through him without really registering. Now with the break of a new day his thoughts were coming back to him, and he found himself looking at Raccoon General Hospital. The sun was still rising behind it, giving it a sort of aura.

He could see vehicles spread around the sides of the hospital forming a barricade. In addition to that the gates leading to the hospital from the main road had been closed. From the distance he was at he could see what looked like two police officers standing guard behind the gates, more than likely to keep anything that might to try to get in at bay.

Behind him, George heard the moans of the undead. They had more than likely been following him, not to mention that the level of dead was rising by the minute. Over on the far end of the road he could see another large group of them. They were heading straight to the hospital. If he didn't hurry there would soon be too many of them at the gates for him to get in. The gates would hold sure, as long as they were kept closed. Once those creatures surrounded the gates there would be no hope of access to the hospital.

He ran forward towards the gates, coming out of the darkness of the sidewalk. Immediately he saw one of the cops look up and raise his gun, which looked like some kind of rifle. No doubt he thought he was one of them and had orders to take them out on sight. George raised his hands.

"Wait!" He yelled, attracting the gazes of the creatures that hadn't seen him yet. He still had time. "Don't shoot! I'm human!" The cop, upon hearing his voice, immediately lowered the rifle while his partner ran forward and unlocked the gate.

"Come on!" George heard him yell. "Quick move it!" George really didn't need any incentive and took off running for the gate. He could hear the moans of the creatures behind him as he went.

The second officer opened the gate and held it open for George. He motioned with his hand to George as the zombies on both sides began to draw closer, moaning excitedly for the taste of flesh blood.

George sprinted through the gate and both cops closed it behind him, slamming their weight against it to keep it shut while they reattached the padlock. No sooner was it back in place than the first zombie reached the gate and put it hands up to the wire mesh fence baying to get in. It was soon joined by others who began pushing against the gate.

"Thank you." George said to the officers who looked at the gate with concern. "I wouldn't worry about that." George said to reassure them. "There was a riot a few years ago and the gates were closed. No one managed to break through. As long as someone doesn't drive a truck into it it'll hold."

Both of the officers turned to look at him, both with curious looks on their faces. They were probably wondering how he knew about the gate.

"I work here." George said, "I'm a doctor."

"Great." Said the cop who had aimed his rifle at him. "They could use you inside." George nodded and started to turn towards the main entrance. From a quick glance he could see that the glass on the main doors had been cracked. Due to the dark tinge of the glass he couldn't see what was going on inside.

"How bad is it?" He asked turning back around.

"Honestly," the first cop said again, "It could be better but without more staff or doctors there's not much more they can do."

"Thanks." George said and walked up the path to the main doors. He had meant were there any of those creatures inside, but since they hadn't mentioned them he guessed there weren't any. _Here goes nothing, _George thought as he walked up to the doors.

The automatic glass doors that usually opened whenever someone stepped on the motion sensor didn't move. He guessed whatever had damaged the glass had also damaged the sensor. He reached over and dragged the door open, revealing the hospitals second set of doors that were operated by hand. Behind that he could see the reception.

The cop outside had been right, it could have been better. A lot better. The place was pandemonium. People moved in all directions, mostly nurses and doctors, seeing to a load of people who were gathered in the reception. It looked it had been turned into the temporary ER. He wondered what the main ER was like right now.

As he walked in he noticed most of the people in the reception were injured in some way. Cuts and gashes could be seen on arms and legs. Other people had no visible wounds but the blood on their clothes gave away their predicament. At the back he could hear someone screaming in agony. The hospital was overloaded, and understaffed.

"George!" One of the nurses said as she walked over to him. "Thank god you're here-"

"Watch out!"

George turned his head in the direction of the noise – to see a patient lean forward and bite another one in the shoulder. The man yelled and struggled to push his now undead assailant off him. Others started to scream and panic started to seep through those gathered.

Bam! A single gunshot was heard and the zombie fell to the ground. George turned to see a cop walk forward, still wielding his gun.

"Everyone okay?" The cop said, searching among the crowd for any other undead attackers. He lowered his gun upon seeing none.

"This has been happening all morning." George turned to see one of the doctors, Gregory Hursh, standing behind him. If anything he looked worse than the zombies did. George had last seen him when he had left to go to J's the night before. From the look of him, he hadn't stopped working since.

Behind them a nurse was already taking the injured man away to be treated. Next to them another man leaned forward and vomited on the floor. Hursh placed his hand on George's arm and started to lead him away.

"We've had admissions like that all night and even more this morning." He said, his words clipped by his English accent. "We've had to barricade the other entrances to the hospital since more of those things showed up in the early hours." People rushed past them as they went, all of them confused but having some kind of job to do.

"No one knows what the hell is going on." Hursh continued as they rounded a corner. In front of them several people were moving gurneys around, all of them with unconscious people on them. George noticed that the people pushing the gurneys were a mix and hospital staff and civilians. With them he saw someone he recognised; the Japanese girl from the bar the previous night. He couldn't remember her name or if he'd even known her name at some point.

"We're dangerously understaffed here." Hursh said as they stepped aside to let the gurneys go through. "We lost over twenty members of staff last night before we finally were able to barricade the entrances. There are plenty of people willing to help, but because of those…_things _out there, no one in the barricaded area who needs medical help can get in. Not that I think medical help will do much good now though."

"What do you mean?" George asked they turned into another hallway. It was slightly quieter than the others. A man was slumped against a wall ahead of them, staring into space. He didn't look ill; George guessed he just wanted a place to sit down. A few more people walked around with some task they had. The whole place looked like a war zone medical centre, there was no order. How could there be with what was going on outside?

"I think I know what's causing people to become those…creatures." Hursh said, stopping and keeping his voice low as he turned to look to George.

"What?" George said, looking back at him. He already had his own theories about how the dead were starting to rise in Raccoon, but hearing it from another person, especially someone in a position to know what he was talking about, would make him feel less insane for thinking it.

"I think it's a virus." Hursh said. George sighed inwardly. He remembered that virus he had examined last night. He had forgotten about it in the confusion that had since gripped the city. "That who turned in the waiting room came in here without a scratch on him. One of the patients attacked him and bit him on the wrist. That was three hours ago and he was showing no signs of this before he was bitten. I think whatever this is can be transferred via contact with bodily fluids."

"There's something else too," George said, checking the hallway to make sure they were at least out of earshot. It wouldn't be a good idea to cause more undue panic by telling people they're assailants were actually dead. "I think these people are dead."

"I know," Hursh said, his voice betraying a hint of excitement as if he had been storing up all the information for hours on end, which he probably had. "I did an autopsy on one of them and the bloody bastard was still trying to move even with half his chest cavity and his heart cut out! I mean, what the hell is this thing?"

"From what I've seen there seems to be only one way to stop them." George said. "Shooting them in the head is the only way to stop it. So, whatever this is it must affect the brain."

"Yeah," Hursh said.

"Wait," George said, suddenly realising something. "Did you put the bodies in the morgue?" If they had the morgue would surely have been designated a no go zone.

"We did for a while." Hursh said, "but then all the corpses started waking up. It got so bad we had to close the door with two staff members still inside."

"My god…" George said. If only they'd known sooner, maybe they might still be alive.

"We managed to block it off and seal the door." Hursh said "As for the rest of the bodies; we're putting them outside near the entrance where you came in. I know it might seem disrespectful but we're already overcrowded enough in here without some decomposing bodies to deal with."

George nodded. As grim as it was he was right. "We've dedicated the first two floors to the people who have come in overnight," Hursh continued. "We had to move the other patients upstairs to the third and fourth floors. The ones who were able to stand have had to sit in chairs all night. It's unbearable. Plus we'll be out of supplies within twenty-four hours if we stay blocked off like this."

George sighed, running a hand through his unkempt hair. Things were bad, but they had to think of the bigger picture. If they had knowledge that could be of use to the rest of the city, such as how this virus spread and how to stop those already infected, then they had to get the word out.

"Do we have any way of contacting the R.P.D. or city hall?" George asked.

"Yes," Hursh replied. "When they dropped off some officers to help they gave us a number that would go straight through to their offices." Hursh looked at George and nodded catching onto what he was suggesting. "Right I'll call them straight away and give them the information. They'll probably put an urgent press conference out on it."

"I'll come with you." George said but Hursh shook his head.

"How long have you been up?" He asked. George had actually lost track of time since the outbreak had begun. Now that he thought about it it had to have been at least twenty four hours. He had been running on adrenaline all this time he had barely felt it.

"Go upstairs." Hursh said, "Go to the on-call room and get some sleep there. We need you, but we need you alert."

Their conversation was interrupted by another gunshot from somewhere off in one of the other corridors. They stood in silence for a moment. When it wasn't repeated Hursh turned back to George.

"Just go and get some sleep." He said. "I'll make the relevant calls and then get the staff to quarantine those who might be infected. God knows how I'm going to explain this to them."

George let out a small laugh as Hursh turned and walked away. As George turned and headed to the on-call room he began to wonder how much worse things would get before the end.

XXX

Kevin yawned as he stood in the detective's room with around ten other cops, all waiting to hear what would happen next. He had managed to get about five hours sleep since he got back from setting up the barricades. He had told them he was fine but Marvin had insisted on it, saying that the day staff could take over. Even though Kevin was technically part of the day staff he hadn't argued and had fallen asleep about thirty seconds after his had laid down in bed behind the lockers near the back of the building.

The police station had been turned into an evacuation centre since the barricades had been put up. Luckily though everyone was either in the main hall or the waiting room. No one was in the detectives room except for those authorised to be there. It wasn't that he didn't think the refuges should be there, because he did, he just wasn't too big on large groups of people.

It was the same at any social event. He would usually just stand in the corner and drink, until he was drunk enough to try chatting up the first female thing with two legs that walked by him. It didn't always work, although sometimes it did. But generally Kevin was the antisocial kind, unless it involved his work, but then it was a social gathering, it was work.

He wondered it Mark had found his family yet. He'd remembered he was looking for them around the time he went to sleep. He wondered if they'd made it to the station, or one of the other evac centres.

There was another one being set up at a local high school, and another at a community centre. It had a huge hall so it was large enough to hold a large amount of people. As far as he knew they were taking a list of names of everyone who entered, but there might be a chance they missed a few.

The main doors to the room opened and Marvin came in. He looked even more dishevelled than he had earlier. Kevin wondered if he had gotten any sleep. He probably hadn't. Since Chief Irons had decided to go awol all of a sudden it meant that Marvin was the one who had to pick up the slack.

Kevin had always thought he'd make a better chief than Irons anyway. _Except Irons knows something about what's going on. _Kevin's memory drifted back to the riot less than a day earlier, and how Irons had quickly apprehended the people, who they now knew as zombies (it sounded more ridiculous each time he said it), and had gotten rid of them. _I'll bet ten bucks he's gone because he knows something big is about to come down._

"All right." Marvin said, addressing the group. "The barricades are holding firm and there's been a decrease in the attacks. They're still happening but it's not as bad." Kevin noticed a few of the group sigh with relief. It had been a rough night, that was for sure.

"I've put in a call to the National Guard and they should be here soon." Behind him the door opened and David Ford entered the room behind him, speaking as it closed.

"Sorry to interrupt you Marvin." He said. Technically Ford was still a rookie, but he had been hired before the S.T.A.R.S. suspension. _S.T.A.R.S...they tried to warn us about this._

In a second it all hit him like a sudden realisation. S.T.A.R.S. coming back from the Arklay incident, speaking of bio-research in a secret lab and a virus that turned people into mindless freaks. _It did happen. _Kevin thought. _They tried to warn us and we threw them to the wolves. _

S.T.A.R.S. had blamed Umbrella for the accident as well. Kevin began to wonder if that might be true as well, but what he heard next only confirmed it.

"I just got a call." Ford went on, "The man said he was an executive with Umbrella. And he said that they're coming here."

"What?" Marvin said. "Umbrella? Why the hell are they coming here? What does this have to do with…them?" Marvin trailed as he began to realise along with Kevin and the rest of the room. S.T.A.R.S. had said that Umbrella was responsible for bio-weapons research in the forest, and now it's happening here too. It couldn't just be coincidence.

"Sir?" Kevin and the others turned to see one of the new guys (Kevin had never learnt his name) coming in from the small office to the side. "We're getting calls from civilians saying that roadblocks are being set up around the outskirts of the city."

"What?!" Marvin said, disbelief showing on his face. "Is it the National Guard? The Army?"

"No sir," the officer replied. "They said they were unidentified men in black wearing what looked like gas masks. They're apparently brandishing weapons sir." Marvin's face showed the confusion that Kevin didn't doubt was also showing on his own face.

"All right get a unit down there right away to find out exactly what the hell is going on and who these people are." Two officers turned and started to walk towards the back. "Ford you go with them."

"Yes sir." The rookie said and headed after the other two.

"The rest of you be wary." Marvin said, "Irons is still missing and we have some official from Umbrella on his way. I know what you all must have a million questions, but we'll get our answers once they arrive."

In the office to the side the phone started to ring. Kevin went over to answer it, becoming increasingly convinced that whatever was going on in the city, Umbrella was a part of it.

XXX

There was a distant buzzing. Faint at first but then it started to grow, started to haul her out of the dreamless sleep she had entered. It was a familiar feeling. One she had grown used to in her career and one that she knew instinctively to reach for.

_Phone-!_

Alyssa was jerked awake the vibrating phone in her pocket. Rubbing her eyes she sat up in the community centre that was now doubling for a refugee camp. Beside her was a woman fast asleep. They were the lucky ones who managed to get sleep. Around them volunteers ran to and fro trying to sort the rising number of those needing help.

She reached down for her phone and turned it on. She held it up to her ear. "Hello?" She said, still feeling slightly groggy.

"Alyssa?" The voice of her boss Jonathan said to her. "Where the hell have you been?!"

"What?" Said Alyssa sitting up against the wall she had slept against.

"Where the hell have you been all morning?" Jonathan said again. "It's been going crazy over here." She could by the way he talked that he was excited about something.

"I'm at the evacuation centre." She said.

"What the hell are you doing over there?" He said to her. Alyssa raised her eyebrows. What the hell kind of question was that?

"I'm helping people." She said, letting a tinge of her annoyance seep into the words.

"Well get the hell back here." Jonathan said.

"Why?" She asked.

"We still have a job to do." Jonathan said to her, "Now get back here, I need to know what happened last night."

Was he kidding? The city was in the grip of a crisis, and he wanted to sell papers?

"No." She said, "Look I'm needed here, I'm helping these people."

"Screw that and get your ass back here." He said. She could barely believe the arrogance in his tone. "If we're all here we'll be the only paper in the city to go to the print today. Think of the circulation!"

"You've got to be kidding me…" Alyssa said, hardly believing what was coming out of his mouth.

"I heard you were at Main Street last night when it blew." Jonathan continued. "What happened? Was it good? Worthy of dedicating a page to? Do you have any witnesses to give a statement? Hell I don't care if it's even the friend of a witness."

"Okay," Alyssa said, letting her anger show in her voice. "You wanna know what happened last you heartless shit? People died! Hundreds of people died! And right now I'm going to focus on helping those who are still alive. So fuck you and your paper." A sly smile appeared on her face. "Consider this my resignation asshole."

With that she terminated the call and turned her phone off. He would probably try to call her back but she wasn't in the mood to deal with him. She'd turn it back on later when he'd given up.

Yawning she stood and headed over to the main area of people, not noticing that the woman beside her had stopped breathing.

_A/N: Okay back again. Sorry about the lack of action in this one, but I'm trying to show what's happening to the city and setting up some stuff for later. This would have been up a lot sooner but I had a sudden flurry of inspiration and wrote a script for the original Resident Evil. 140 pages in 4 days. I was quite pleased with that. If anyone wants to read it I uploaded it on the screenplays section of the site, so you can find it on my profile. Alternatively just hit me up on MSN and I'll send it. My address is on my profile too. Other than that enjoy this chapter and I look forward to the reviews._


	15. Quarantine

**Chapter Fifteen: Quarantine**

The street was deserted as Ada walked up to the door of the Raccoon Press. There were the occasional group of people, running out to their cars and throwing clothes and belongings in. No doubt trying to escape the city.

_Fat chance. _Ada thought. She would be very surprised if Umbrella weren't already monitoring all the entrances to the city, if they hadn't already sealed them off. Anyone who did escape would surely be seen anyway.

She looked at her watch. It was almost midday. She had to find this Bertolucci character, and fast. Before things got out of hand. Sure, the cops had managed to barricade the city, but unless they figured out how to stem the outbreak and kill all of the infected, things would soon get a lot worse.

It was cruel, she knew, but it was also the only way. From what Wesker had told her Umbrella hadn't developed an antivirus for it yet, although apparently they were working on it. Not that they would be in a big hurry to synthesise it though. Although a surprise and a drawback, the zombie weapons created by the virus were very effective, until you found out their weak spot, then they were easy. Unless they surrounded you.

As she pushed the door open and stepped into the deserted lobby she started to think about how long this calm would last. If she could call it a calm. There was no doubt a ton of infected people at the evacuation centres, and if they didn't know how to kill them or at least isolate them then they would easily be overpowered. Not to mention the infected that no doubt were still hiding at home, showing no signs but slowly letting the virus push through them. They would be looking for a meal soon too.

And then there were the bio-weapons down stairs…

Ada shuddered as she pushed those thoughts from her mind and started up the stairs. If the virus had leaked in the labs then surely they would be under lockdown, making her access harder, but hopefully keeping the bio-weapons, like those Hunters Wesker had mentioned and the other ones with the long tongues, securely locked away. If they escaped the city would find itself in a lot worse shit than it currently was.

If she was lucky though she'd be in and out and not even have to see one, even if it was only in a cage.

As she ascended the stairs she could hear voices from the one of the rooms above. There was also a lot of commotion going on inside it. Ada stood quietly in the hallway, listening. If one of the staff was infected and had turned she didn't just want to walk in casually and risk being infected. One bite and she was screwed.

"Hurry up and finish that report!"

She heard the voice from inside the room, relieved that at least none of them were infected, but confused as to what they were doing. Were they actually trying to write a new edition of the paper with the living dead starting to roam the streets?

As she walked into the room she saw three men. One turned to her as she came in. She noticed his matted hair and that his shirt had been buttoned down several stages. He still wore a tie though. _Trying to act like a pro till the end. _She had never really respected tabloid newspaper writers. They cared more about sensationalist stories then about what was really happening.

"Can I help you?" The man said, now turning to focus fully on her. Ada could tell he was checking her out, she was used to it, but the guy gave off a creepy vibe towards her. Still, she was still in her evening dress, she couldn't really act so surprised unless she changed out of it, but she doubted she would. While it may be inappropriate at times, she noticed that men were a lot more susceptible to it.

"I'm looking for someone," She said, noticing his name tag. "Jonathan." She added. If playing into his delusions helped her in her task she had no qualms about doing it.

"Well I'd say you found someone little lady." He said, a smile spreading on his face. His creep vibe was now becoming a lot more powerful. Ideally she wouldn't waste her time with him. _But alas, duty calls._

"Not exactly what I meant." She said, letting a sultry smile spread on her lips as she walked further into the room, taking in the rest of it. There was another man gathering papers frantically, hardly noticing her. And another who was sat a computer. He wasn't moving. "I'm looking for someone called Ben."

"Ben?" Jonathan said, a slight surprise crossing his face. Ada nodded and moved to the side, trying to get a good look at the man at the computer.

"Yes." She said. "Ben Bertolucci. I believe he works here?" Jonathan's face seemed to drop as she mentioned him. She couldn't help but smile. He had been hoping she was looking for him, but instead was more interested in one of his peons.

"Yeah he works here." Jonathan said and turned away, fetching some papers from the desk behind him. "But he hasn't showed up today." He turned back to her. "If you find him tell he's fired for me will ya?"

Ada walked forward, following him. If Ben wasn't here then she needed to find out where he was. Plus there was that man on the computer. Looking over she now noticed he had a bandaged wrist. Blood was currently seeping out of it. _Better wrap this up quick._

"Do you know where he is?" Ada asked, still keeping an eye on the no doubt infected man sitting by the computer.

"Probably in Latham by now." Jonathan said, the name coming back to Ada as the closest town to Raccoon, at least thirty miles away. "The guys not a bad reporter, but he's a weasel."

_Great, _Ada thought, _no lead on Bertolucci and still no way to get into the labs, no to mention mister soon-to-be-dead in the corner. _This had been one giant waste of time.

"Look lady," Jonathan said, turning back to her. "I got a paper to run here so unless there's anything else I can help you with…"

"Oh don't worry." Ada said, notice that the man in the corner was now moving his arm. "I'll be on my way."

"Great." Jonathan said as Ada turned to leave. She heard a light moan come from the man at the computer and doubled the pace. As she took the stairs three at a time down to the lobby she wondered if she should have warned them about the infected man, but then again, Jonathan had been a grade-A creep. Still though, it was a bad way to go.

Ada opened the main doors as the screams started above her.

XXX

Through their windshield David Ford could see what looked like a large group of people up ahead. In the front seats he saw Alex and Ross exchange uneasy glances. David felt it too. It just didn't feel right. He knew he was still a rookie, but his intuition was still giving him a bad feeling.

Their drive to the outskirts had been relatively quiet, except for the odd car driving past or alongside them. He knew a report had gone out earlier urging people to stay in their homes, but from the looks of it, most people just wanted out. He couldn't really blame them.

As they got closer he could see cars parked alongside the road near the group of people. Most of them empty although a few still sat in some of them. At the front of the fifty strong group was what looked like a barricade. It looked like the kind used at army bases. Several soldiers clad in black stood beyond it, pointing something at the crowd. He couldn't see what it was, but if they were pointing anything, he guessed it was a firearm.

Several people turned to them as the car pulled up and came running over. Ross was the first out of the car as Alex killed the engine. No sooner was he out the car than a panicked and pale woman wearing a cardigan ran over to him.

"Oh thank god!" She said to Ross as Alex and David stepped out of the car. "They won't let us leave!" Her voice was tinged with panic as she spoke. David noticed that dark circles were starting to form under her eyes.

"What do you mean?" Ross said as he walked up to the front of the group. David followed, watching the panicked and angry faces of those in the crowd, all of them expecting him and the others to fix it. That was one of the things he hated about this job. People expected him to work miracles. And they hated them when they didn't. It was a lose lose situation.

At the front of the group one of the soldiers was staring to wrap barbed wire over the barricades. He was really starting to get a bad feeling about this. Behind him stood the others, and David finally got a good look at them.

Clad all in black, they looked like some kind of Special Forces. They wore some kind of gas mask on their head so that absolutely no part of their skin beneath was visible. They looked more machine than human. Their imposing figures keeping at bay. That, and the assault rifles they held, not pointing them at the crowd, but not exactly pointing them away either.

"They're not letting any of us leave the city!" The panicked woman said again as Alex laid his arm on her shoulder and led her away, trying to calm her.

David followed Ross and stood next to the barricade. The soldiers barely flinched at the sight of the uniform of Raccoon's finest, but he felt the hope of the crowd rise at the sight of the uniform. Some kind of hope that they could fix whatever was going on.

"What's going on here?" Ross asked the soldier at the front. Beside him the other soldier continued wrapping barbed wire along the barricade. "Why is he doing that?" Ross asked.

None of them paid any attention to him. They just continued scanning the crowd. "Look!" Ross said, his voice rising, "I'm an officer at the R.P.D. and I want to know what's going on here!"

"Quarantine procedures sir." The soldier at the front said, finally acknowledging him.

"Quarantine?" Ross said, "For what?"

"We cannot allow anyone to leave the city sir." The soldier said, his strangely distant through the mask he wore. "We are authorised to use force if necessary."

"Who are you people?" Ross said, but now others from the crowd were beginning to cut in.

"That's bullshit you can't keep us here!" Said one man, stepping forward. "I know my rights! Our government can't do this to us!" He started to move toward the barricade.

"We are not your government sir." The soldier said, and he raised his gun, aiming it at the man. Two other soldiers behind him raised theirs too. "Now please, step back."

The man stopped and stepped back, shock showing on his face. David knew he was wearing a similar look. Suddenly there was a commotion behind them, several people gasping in shock and a few screaming.

David turned to see several people crowding around someone on the ground. The soldiers suddenly snapped alert and raised their guns, a few moving closer to the barricade. As David walked closer he saw that the person on the ground was the panicked woman. Alex was crouched over her.

"What happened?" Ross said, walking up.

"She just feinted." Alex said. Behind them David heard the cocking of gun. Turning he saw that three of the soldiers were now aiming guns at the woman.

"Step away from her!" The first one was said, his voice rising in the excitement. "Step back from her!" Several people cried out in shock as they saw them, backing away as they did, but the woman was still blocked.

"Wow wait what are you doing!" Ross said to them as he stepped forward. "She just feinted!"

"Step away!" The first soldier yelled at him. David stood looking at them dumbstruck, when behind him, Alex screamed.

Turning he saw that the feinted woman was awake – and was now biting Alex's neck! Several people screamed and backed away, a few people running. She threw her head back and ripped away a chunk of skin away from his neck. Alex howled in pain and fell onto his back.

Suddenly there was a bang and the woman's head jerked back. At first David didn't know what had happened; people screamed and started to run for cover. Turning, he saw the three soldiers had their guns aimed at the woman. Alex writhed on the ground. Grunting, he tried to sit up.

Without warning the second soldier aimed his gun at Alex and fired, shooting him through the head. David jumped back in shock as Ross ran over to the soldiers.

"Why the fuck did you do that!" He screamed at them. The first one aimed his gun at him.

"We cannot risk the infection escaping sir!" He said, "Now back away, and tell these people to go back to their homes!"

"What kind of infection!" Ross yelled, "What the fuck is going on here!"

"We are not authorised to say sir!" The soldier said. From somewhere within the group there was more screaming now. Turning he saw another man bite into the shoulder of a woman. Behind them another man turned and grabbed another man, both of them falling to the ground.

"It's here!" He heard the soldier say behind him. Turning he saw him raise his hand t his ear, presumably to a radio. "It's reached the barricades!" Looking back he saw at least three other people leap onto a man and drag him to the ground. He turned back to the soldier. He seemed to nod at whatever was said through his headset. "Roger!"

He raised his gun to the crowd and looked at the other soldiers behind him. "Fire at will!" Suddenly they all opened up, firing at random into the crowd. David and Ross hit the deck as the bullets flew over them.

"What the hell are they doing!?" Ross yelled over the carnage to David, who found himself frozen with horror. He had been trained to deal with crisis situations, but this was far beyond that. To these soldiers, not even the RPD was any kind of authority. There was no order, only chaos.

People screamed as fell as the bullets riddled their bodies. One fell in front on David, a man, in his early twenties by the looks of him. David found himself staring at him for a moment, almost imagining he was still moving – and then he realised he was moving! He looked up at David with dead eyes and reached out to him, even with five bullets in chest. He let out a hungry moan as he reached for him.

"Oh my god!" David said and crawled away, panicked people running and being shot all around him. Ahead he saw Ross turn back to him.

"Quick to the squad car!" He yelled and started crawling to it. David followed him, all the while hearing the screams of the dead and dying, followed by the occasional moan of the undead.

Up ahead he saw the lucky few who had managed to run out of range and were currently running back to the city or getting into their cars. He saw a man run into a car and start it up. A second later another man was at the door, dragging him out. The man struggled, but was easily overpowered and thrown to the floor.

He looked back up as the other man got into his car and sped off towards the city. He stood, rage showing on his face – until a woman leapt on his back and ripped his throat out.

David looked away, and saw the squad car less than five feet ahead of him. He crawled over and opened the door to the passenger seat. He could already see Ross in the driver's seat.

"Come on!" He yelled and David hauled himself into the car, barely having any time to fasten his seat belt as it sped off back into the city.

XXX

Kevin stood against the wall with his arms folded to his chest as the men from Umbrella entered the station. Four men, one was a wiry man with glasses and short black hair, Kevin immediately knew he didn't trust him. The other was a slightly older man with short brown hair; he guessed from his stance that he was probably military of some kind. They were flanked on both sides by two armoured guards dressed completely in black and wearing gas masks. This was certainly not the postcard picture of Umbrella that was usually marketed. Kevin got the feeling this was the real Umbrella, and he didn't like it.

Kevin watched as they made their way through the main hall, gathering various looks from the civilians gathered, as they made their way to the detective's room. Marvin was standing in the connecting hallway just outside it. He noticed they paid him no mind as they walked up. They probably didn't think he held any kind of authority. Kevin pushed off from the wall and followed them. As he did he noticed Marvin moving over to stand in front of the detective's room door, blocking their access.

"Can I help you?" He said, his tone cold and uncaring.

"Yes." Said the man with glasses, "We're looking for Chief Irons."

"He's not here." Marvin replied simply.

"Where is he?" The man asked.

"We don't know," Marvin said. "He went missing last night."

"Fine." Said the man, sighing as he did. "Then we're looking for whoever is currently is in charge of the RPD."

"That would be me." Marvin said. The man laughed at this.

"Yeah…" He said, but trailed off when he saw the seriousness in Marvin's gaze. He straightened up. "And you are?"

"Detective Marvin Branagh." Marvin said. "And ever since the chief went AWOL last night I've been in charge of the station."

The man looked down the hallway at the cops on either side. His gaze met Kevin's for a moment. He knew this wasn't what the man had been expecting. He had been expecting to meet Irons at the door and be escorted up to his office, away from prying eyes; instead, the order of the station was gone, replaced with the rabble that seemed to have taken control. Almost like a group of children whose parents had disappeared and now they were taking control.

"Fine." The man said, "Then perhaps we could discuss this somewhere more private." He clearly felt uncomfortable around everyone.

"Okay." Marvin said and opened the door to the detective's office. The men went in, Kevin and a few other officers followed them. As the cops spread around the room the man with glasses and the older man stood next to the desk near the door. The two men with assault rifles took places in front of them. Almost like a shield.

"Right," Marvin said, once the door was closed. "I assume you're here to tell us what's going on in this city."

"Yes…" The man said hesitantly. "Are you sure Chief Irons isn't here?"

"He's not here." Marvin said, and Kevin saw the man squirm uncomfortably. Whatever they had planned, this wasn't it.

"Okay." The man said. "Well first off my name is Peter Michaels and I work for the Umbrella Corporation. From what our sources can tell us…there is some sort of virus leaking through your city. Now so far we believe this to be some sort of terrorist attack-"

"Bullshit." Marvin said.

"Excuse me?" Peter said, looking to Marvin, confusion playing on his face.

"You might have managed to fool us the first time by getting rid of S.T.A.R.S.," Marvin said, making full eye contact with Peter. "But you are not going to fool us again with your lies. Now, tell us the truth."

Marvin's voice was consistent and clear, but Kevin knew it was affecting Peter. Sweat had started to appear on his brow. Kevin smiled a little at this. In the short time since they had received word that they were coming, and then that call from the hospital about the way the infection spread, they now had no doubts they were dealing with what S.T.A.R.S. had dealt with back in July.

"I…" Peter's voice faltered as he tried to reply to him. Eventually he sighed. "Fine…there is a virus spreading through this city. As far as we can tell it's the T-Virus."

"How did it get out?" Marvin said. No matter what anger Kevin knew he was surely feeling right now, he kept it professional.

"We don't know." Peter said, "We suspect a leak at the underground labs beneath the city." Kevin saw Marvin tense at this, as he knew he was too. There were labs underneath the city!? They had playing Raccoon all along!

"Now," Peter continued, "We noticed that you have taken measures to stop the spread of infection by barricading areas of the city. Unfortunately at best all that will do is stall the process. This virus is highly contagious and is spread through fluid contact; anyone injured or bitten by the infected will become infected themselves. Therefore it is imperative that all infected people are quarantined immediately."

The door to the detective's room opened and Meyer, one of the older men on the force, stuck his head in. "Sorry to interrupt Marvin but there's a guy in the main hall who's started throwing up and this cut he has is starting to bleed quite a bit."

"Thanks Meyer we'll be out in a minute." Marvin said and turned back to Peter. Meyer closed the door.

"You have infected people in the building?" Peter said, his voice showing traces of concern.

"We'll handle it." Marvin said.

"Well you better." Peter said, "The only way to stop the infected is to destroy their brain. The virus manifests itself there and causes them to come back. Now…" He said, looking at everyone around the room worriedly. "We are placing the city under quarantine."

There were several gasps and grunts around the room. Kevin felt himself do the same. Marvin stood there immovable.

"We are already in the process of sending in our own men to help with barricading and quarantine procedures."

"That's not necessary." Marvin said to him. "We've already contacted the National Guard."

"We know." Peter said, "The National Guard aren't coming, we told them to stay away."

"Why?" Marvin said, tension growing in his voice.

"We are going this handle this situation ourselves." Peter said. "Our men are among the best trained for this kind of situation."

Marvin suddenly started to chuckle at this.

"What?" Peter asked.

"This has nothing to do about your men being trained for this." Marvin said, "This is all just about you keeping this quiet. Not letting anyone find out what Umbrella really does."

"Our men are the best trained to deal with these kinds of situations I can promise you that Officer Branagh." Peter said. "No one is authorised to enter or leave this city, and anyone who has left the city in the last twenty four hours is currently being tracked."

"You son of a bitch!" Marvin said as he advanced on him. He was with a raised gun from one of the guards, blocking him. Peter still backed away. "You couldn't give a rat's ass about us! We weren't even meant to know about this were we!"

"Step back sir." The first armed guard said.

"You just wanted to tell Irons how bad it was didn't you." Marvin said, ignoring him. "We're all just expendable to you. Speaking of Irons, I take it he knows about this T-Virus does he?" It wasn't a question, at least not one that needed an answer. They were all certain he knew now anyway. "Who else knows about this?" Marvin continued, "The Mayor?"

"I am not at liberty to discuss this with you sir." Peter Said.

"Last warning sir," Said the armed guard, "Step away!"

"Branagh!" Came a voice they all recognised from the back of the room. Turning they all saw Chief Irons walk into room via the hallway that led to the outside stairwell. "That's enough, Detective." Marvin stepped back, his rage still evident.

"We will continue this in my office." Irons said and started leading them to the back of the room.

"When were you going to tell us _Chief?_" Marvin's words were coated with spite. "Were you ever?" Irons ignored him as he and the others walked through the door at the back that led to the outside stairs.

For a moment no one talked, they all just sat in silence. S.T.A.R.S. had been right, Umbrella was creating viral weaponry, not just at a lab in the woods but now underneath the damn city! And now, if Umbrella had their way, no one would ever know.

There was the sound of footsteps out in the hall as Meyer opened the door again. "I'm sorry but this guy's really starting to get worse." He said.

"Okay." Marvin nodded and walked over to him. "Let's isolate him."

XXX

Alyssa walked over to the main group of people over at the doors to the centre. She noticed one of them was nearing a miniskirt and a grey sweater over her with knee high boots. They turned to look at her as she approached.

"What can I do to help?" Alyssa asked, noticing that the woman in the sweater was looking at the Raccoon Press badge on her jacket.

"We just got a call from the RPD." One of them said, "Apparently anyone wounded is going to turn into one of those things so we need to isolate them right away."

"It could be dangerous." The woman in the miniskirt said, "Do you have a weapon?" Alyssa shook her head, wondering where she had seen her before.

"Here." The woman said, and handed Alyssa a stun gun. "If you aim for the head it should at least slow one of them down. Trust me it's worked for me before."

Alyssa nodded and clipped the gun to her belt as Anne, the woman who had taken charge of the shelter, walked over to the middle of the room.

"Excuse me everyone," She said, "Can I get everyone to come over here please." People around the hall started to look over at her.

"So, Raccoon Press huh?"

Alyssa turned to woman – who she suddenly recognised as one of the surviving members of S.T.A.R.S. Jill Valentine. Alyssa nodded uncomfortably at this. The Raccoon Press hadn't exactly been supportive of S.T.A.R.S. and their wild accusations. In fact Jonathan had been ruthless in seeing that they were portrayed as crackpots.

"_S.T.A.R.S. night of binge drugs and alcohol costs seven lives._ Nice." Jill said, quoting the headlined Jonathan had put out.

"I didn't write that headline." Alyssa said, suddenly feeling guilt for what they had done. "Plus if it's any consolation I don't work there any more." Jill smiled a little bit and looked to the crowd that was gathering around Anne.

"This isn't going to work." She said, now serious again. "There's people all over this building, who knows how many of them have turned. We need some kind of tannoy system."

"We'll handle that Mam." Came a muffled voice from behind them. Turning Alyssa saw five men with gas masks and black combat gear enter the building. Her eyes immediately noticed the assault rifles they held. She barely noticed Jill quickly turning away to hide her face.

The men walked further into the room. Outside she saw even more of them outside setting up barricades. What were they doing? Were they quarantining the building?

Alyssa's thought were interrupted by a scream that echoed through the hall from one of the connecting corridors. The men suddenly raised their guns and spread around the hall, looking for any signs of attack.

Jill had been right, the building was too big, and there were too many empty corridors that people had sought refuge in. If one of them had turned in a zombie…

Suddenly there was a scream from the crowd in front of them. Looking over she saw the woman she had set next to not five minutes ago sinking her teeth into the throat of a man. He struggled against her as she ripped his throat out and he fell to the floor gurgling.

The closest soldier opened up, spraying her body with bullets until she fell over. More people started screaming now, and they started running. Through the crowd she thought she saw another zombie but she couldn't be sure. She heard a door open at the back – and then a series of screams proceeded.

Alyssa continued looking among the crowd, and then she saw the dead face of one of the men she had helped when she first came in. _John, that was his name._

Mow he was dead, just like the other zombies that were attacking anyone in the crowd. He saw her and started to move towards her. Suddenly someone fell against him and they both landed on the floor. Alyssa looked away in time to see the man with no throat grab Anne and knock her over to the floor.

There was a gunshot next to her. Looking she saw Jill shoot a zombie who was ambling towards them. Alyssa paced herself, preparing to run into the crowd to help Anne and the others.

The soldier with guns were backing away now, shooting anyone they saw, dead or alive. One of them backed against the wall as he fired. Suddenly the door behind him was flung open and three zombies pounced on him. He struggled as they dragged him to the floor and he disappeared beneath them.

People were running all around them now. Civilians running for the exit. Jill fired another shot and took out another zombie that was ambling towards her. There were too many. She wouldn't be able to keep them all at bay. A wall of zombies seemed to appear out of the crowd and headed towards them, practically cutting them off from the survivors. She saw another soldier get overwhelmed by a group and disappear to the floor.

"We have to move come on!" Jill said and she was already backing towards the exit.

"There's over two hundred people in here!" Alyssa yelled at her, "We can't just leave them!"

"Seal the building."

Turning she saw more soldiers standing at the door. They turned and walked away. Jill looked over at her.

"We have to go now!" She said. She was right; as much as Alyssa didn't want to admit it she was right. If they didn't go now, they would never get out. Turning they both followed the masked soldiers outside into the street. Jill lowered her head to hide her face from them.

"Seal it." One of the soldiers said to another.

"Sir?" He said back. "There are people still in there. Our men are still in there."

"Just do it!" The man said and the soldier nodded. Together he and three more soldiers ran up to the doors and started to close them as the last survivors and the two remaining soldiers made it out. The door closed and they wrapped a chain quickly around the handles to make sure it couldn't be opened again.

Alyssa looked around but couldn't see Jill. She must have disappeared. Suddenly there was a banging at the door. She looked up and saw a panicked man banging on the doors. Her heart filled with dread as she watched him.

"Please!" He screamed from inside. "Please help me!" Alyssa looked at the soldiers. They did nothing. Some looked at him, others turned their minds to other work. "Please let me out!"

Another figure appeared behind him, and grabbed his shoulders, dragging him down and beneath the view of the window. They couldn't see him, but they could still hear his horrified screams as he was torn apart.

Dismayed Alyssa turned away. Those soldiers had just watched the man die and do nothing. Who were they? And then she noticed the truck they had arrived in, and noticed the familiar logo of the Umbrella Corporation.

XXX

"This really isn't necessary."

"I'm afraid it is sir." Marvin said as they opened up the holding cell for the man. They had moved him away from the main group of people but knew if he did turn, they would need to be somewhere far away so they didn't hear the shots and start panicking. Thus, they were in the underground holding cells.

"Look, I feel fine." The man said, but Kevin knew he was clearly lying. His pale face had actually gotten paler on the trip down. And then there were the dark circles under his eyes. Kevin had seen them on enough zombies the night before to know the signs.

Still he felt sorry for the man as the cell door was closed and he was locked away. The man was most likely terrified.

"Look I'm fine." He said again. "Really."

"Sir you were throwing up violently upstairs." Marvin said to him.

"It's just a sick bug." The man said, placing his hands on the bars. "Something I ate last night."

"Please don't make this harder than it has to be sir." Marvin said, lowering his head.

"You think this is hard on you?" The man said, his tone changing. "You're not the one locked in a fucking cell are you!"

"Sir…" Marvin started.

"You haven't been told you're going to die and come back have you!" The man shouted at them. "You aren't the ones on fucking display!"

"Sir please." Marvin said. Kevin couldn't help but sympathise with the poor man. He had just been thrust into a nightmare in which the dead were coming back to life and eating the living. If that wasn't bad enough, he was now told that he might become one of them. He didn't want to believe it. Most people wouldn't either.

"Please!" The man said, desperation starting to show in his sweaty face. "Just let me out of here! Please!"

"I'm sorry sir." Marvin said solemnly.

"Oh fuck you!" The man said, his anger rising again. "You fucking pigs!"

He angled his head down as a coughing fit suddenly overtook him. Pushing away from the bars he turned around and vomited again in the darkness of his cell. The officers watched quietly as he sat down on his cot, breathing hard and clutching at his sweat covered shirt. He started to unbutton it, no doubt a sign of a spiking fever.

His breathing became shallower as they watched him. His eyes closed and he seemed to relax on the bed, but they all knew that he was losing his strength. His breaths became shallower and shallower. Finally he let out a long breath, and didn't inhale again.

They stood in silence, none of them wanting to say what would no doubt happen next. None of them really wanting to admit it, but the proof was there in front of them. Anyone infected by this virus would die. Marvin dropped his hand to his holster and took out his gun, and waited.

The man's arm twitched suddenly. His eyes slowly started to open, revealing the balls of white that had seemingly replaced them. For a moment he just lay there, looking at the ceiling. Kevin wondered if he was trying to remember anything. Who he had been, what he was doing there, who his family was.

Slowly he turned his head towards them. A moan escaped his lips as he started to get up, driven by the sight of them. Marvin raised his gun.

Kevin lowered his head as he fired, hearing the body hit the floor afterwards. Once again they all stood in silence, their worst fears confirmed, but none of them knowing what to say. Finally it was Marvin who broke the silence, and summed up what they were all feeling at that particular moment.

"Shit."

_A/N: And here's the next one, slightly quicker than usual but I had a lot of muse to write this one. I wanted to show how Umbrella tries to quarantine the city and keep the whole thing under wraps, plus I think the idea of an army of HUNKS roaming around Raccoon to be quite cool. _

_Also that scene at the city limits may have seemed a little similar to the Ravens Gate Bridge scene from Resident Evil: Apocalypse, but I actually liked that scene in the film, plus I wanted a scene to show Umbrella blocking off the city and dealing with the infected, you know, in their own special way. _

_Oh and that guy with glasses that I wrote is meant to be that guy in End of the Road who Arnold confronts about code XX, but I couldn't find his name anywhere, so I just gave him a name. Oh yeah, and I changed it to have the T-Virus loose. It just made more sense to have the T-Virus loose than G. I mean, if Ada wanted a sample all she would have to do is take some blood from a zombie, so I'll just go back and edit her lines to say T instead of G. _

_Other than that, enjoy and please review. _


	16. Nightmares

**Chapter 16: Nightmares**

In his dream he was running. But he wasn't fast enough. He never did run fast enough in dreams, and now was no exception. No matter what it was, whether he was in a race, trying to catch someone, or fleeing from the boogeyman, David could never run fast enough.

Except now it was a real boogeyman he was fleeing from. The same kind of boogeymen he'd been fleeing from for hours. They had chased him through the streets in their hundreds and he had managed to get away. But now there was only one and he just couldn't outrun it.

He was back in the joint. He didn't know how or why, he just was. It had seemed to leap up out of nowhere. It was different than he remembered it back then. The hallways were narrower and the lights darker. It was one of those narrow hallways he found himself running down now. Cell bars on all sides of him limiting his options as behind him, a thing that should never had been was howling in it's endless pursuit of flesh.

The hallway seemed to stretch on into infinity. He tried to go faster, but nothing seemed to work. _Come on man._ He said to himself. _Gotta move it!_ The howling abomination was getting closer now. He could hear it's shambling footsteps, that somehow seemed to be going faster than his. _Come on move it!_

He tried to jump, hoping that maybe that would gain some distance between him and his attacker. He landed, realising he had covered little more than a foot. Still the howling abomination edged closer. Still coming. _Shit! Move it!_

He jumped again, and again. Again. Again. If anything the distance in his jumps now seemed to be decreasing. He wasn't going fast enough. The creature was gaining on him now. It's moans frightfully close.

_Fuck's sake man move it!_

It's breath touched the back of his neck.

MOVE IT MOVE IT MOVE IT

He put on one last burst of speed. Hoping it would take him far enough in time. But he hardly even seemed to move.

The creature grabbed his arms. The claws he didn't even know it had began to dig in, tearing deep into his arm. He screamed out and they digged deeper in response. He started to fall forward. It was slow, the way everything seemed to be in dreams. Maybe it was just the mind slowing down events in order to process them. Terror enveloped him as the hard floor of the prison came up to smack him in the face.

Darkness started to take him. He felt himself being turned over. His eyes readjusted, starting to come back into focus. A single light seemed to shine down from the endless floors above, enough to let him look into the face of the monster that was about to eat his flesh slowly with it's teeth bite by bite.

Except it wasn't the horrific face of the monster he had expected. It wasn't the rotting face with skin hanging off, or eyes and ears missing from the circumstances that had caused it's own demise. It wasn't any of that. The face that looked down at him now was the smirking, sadistic face of Deacon.

He laughed with glee as he held David down with his claws. David struggled to move, letting his hatred for Deacon fuel him. The result just succeeded in making him laugh harder. His face started to change, morphing hideously. It was like all the souls of hell screamed in horror along with David as the new face started to take shape.

Looking down at him now was his mother. Her eyes full of pain and regret. Tears were flowing from them. The face started to change again. This time it reassembled itself into the hate filled face of his father. The fury from his eyes seemed to rain down on David, burning as it buried itself under his skin.

The face changed again, this time to the face of a child. The same face David had seen that horrible day. The day when he'd realised. The face cried in front of him. He remembered it. It was the face he knew would follow him to the grave.

The face changed, for one final time. And David saw a familiar pair of eyes looking down at him. They were the same eyes that looked back at him every time he looked in a mirror. The face was different, but still the same. Younger, and more youthful, but filled with a fire that David knew was hate. His younger self lowered his head so that their faces were only centimetres apart.

"Say 'ahh' you little cunt!" It said and dug his teeth into David's neck.

XXX

David awoke with a start. His heart was pounding. For a second he was still there. Still the dark, endless prison looking into the face of his former self. He started to regain his senses. He took a deep breath, trying to settle his heart and blood flow. He knew he wasn't in the juvenile institution anymore. Hadn't been for years. Yet it still haunted him every day. He'd come to Raccoon to try and make a clean break for himself, but it hadn't mattered he realised. No matter how hard he tried and indeed had changed, the past always found a way to follow him.

David sat up and looked around the room he had taken sanctuary in. Sunlight was now shining through the curtains that he had drawn over the window when he came in. He had been chased by a group of ghouls into an alley where he'd managed to take to another street and lose them. Sneaking through a few other streets as the sun was rising he had started to see the remnants of the previous nights carnage. A few of the creatures he'd passed were still picking at the scraps of what was now little more than a human skeleton with clothing still attached.

He wondered why they ate like they did. They were dead, nothing was working anymore. There was no digestion and therefore no reason to feel hungry. And yet those creatures ate like they had never had anything to eat in their lives. He wondered what would happen once there was too much flesh in their stomachs for them to contain. Would they just burst, or would it force itself out through some other ways.

David forced that thought from his mind. A block later he had found a street that was practically deserted. Cars were still crashed against each other and clothing and other pieces or belongings people had attempted to take with them during the evacuations were strewn about the street. He had almost laughed at that. People stopping while the dead were banging on their door because they couldn't find their favourite necklace. And by the time they did it was already too late and the dead they were ripping down their doors. Still, he thought, at least they would die pretty.

He had passed the remains of a dog further down the street. It had pained him to see the animal in such a state. There hadn't been much left of it once the dead had finished with it. Little scraggly bits of fur and a collar still remained. No doubt the feasters had moved on once the dog had been stripped, or a more tempting option had walked by.

The apartment block that he had taken refuge is was located at the end of the street near the corner. High walls bordered the place on all sides, leaving only a small gap on the way up to the entrance. There had been a couple of streaks of blood near the entrance, as if someone had just gotten a paintbrush and dragged a red stroke all the way up to the entrance. He had wondered if it was even safe. The high walls might keep a lot of them out when they were roaming but if they had became aware of him and enough of them had come he'd be trapped. And he didn't even know if the building itself was safe or whether it was crawling with them or not.

He had decided he didn't have much of a choice and had gone in. From what he'd seen earlier if the dead weren't aware of him he could slip by unseen, so if he was quiet enough they wouldn't even know he was there. The block had been quieter than he imagined. He had heard the occasional moan from behind a door as he went up, but nothing made a move or motion to get out, so be guessed he they weren't aware of him.

He had found an apartment on the top floor with the door still open. Inside he'd seen what he'd guessed to be the remains of a hurried evacuation. Clothing was still strewn on the floor along with several belonging. The television had been on when he'd come in but no signal was present, leaving it to give off white noise. He guessed whoever had been living there had just packed and left and not bothered to turn anything off or lock the door.

He himself locked the door once he found the place to be clear. It was one of those flats with a turnable lock on the inside that didn't need a key. He'd claimed what he thought to be the master bedroom and crashed out on the bed, the fatigue from the nights events finally getting the better of him. He hadn't even bothered to turn the TV off.

Looking around now saw the room more clearly than he first had. Drawers had been ripped from their shelves and lay discarded on the floor. One of them was still on the bed, along with a few other clothes that the owner had obviously decided not to take with them. He noticed a picture of the night stand. It was of a young couple in a park hugging each other. He wondered if they had both lived here. The bed was a double so it was possible. At any rate whoever it was clearly wasn't too sentimental and had left the picture behind.

Rising from the bed David stepped over an overturned chair and walked over to the window. Opening the curtains he was almost momentarily blinded by the sun which was now hovering directly over the opposite building. He looked down onto the street.

If anything had changed from the night before he was unable to see it. A single person was shambling along the side walk, leaning against a railing. He couldn't see any other movement. Smoke was rising from somewhere else in the city. It was a perfect image of the apocalypse. Maybe it was. Maybe whatever was going on had wiped out the world while he had been sleeping.

How long had he been asleep anyway? Two hours? Four? He walked over to the side of the bed where he could see an overturned alarm clock. He turned it over and looked at the screen which read 15:17. Jesus, he thought. He had been asleep for over six hours. What had happened in that time? Was there still alive in the city? Was there anyone still alive in the world?

As he turned to the door he stopped. Some new noise had developed. He listened hard.

It was a voice.

Panic started to rise within him. He was sure he'd been alone when he'd entered the apartment. He'd checked every room hadn't he? What if one of those things had gotten in? No, he said to himself, those things don't talk. They just moaned, an unearthly curse of the damned.

So where was the voice coming from now? Had survivors come, or was it the person who had owned the flat. Would they be less than pleased when they found David sleeping in their bed? He pressed his ear to the door and listened carefully. Slowly he began to understand the words. It was a woman.

"John I'm standing just outside Raccoon East High school where an evacuation centre has been set up..."

Suddenly it hit him. The calm voice, the faintness of it. The TV was on!

He flung open the door and hurried through to the living room. There had been no transmission on when he'd first come in. He guessed either the signal had been repaired or Raccoon was now broadcasting on an emergency network.

The woman on the television was standing in front of a building he assumed to be the high school she had mentioned. People were rushing in and out of the building. Several people in black hazmat suits were running around. They were carrying M-16's and he noticed their attire was more suited to combat than disease control. He wondered who they were. Her next sentence answered his question.

"As you can see Umbrella forces are already here and helping to strengthen the centre with more personnel and equipment. People are still coming here from various parts of the city, including the quarantine zone."

_Quarantine Zone,_ David thought. Maybe it wasn't as bad as he'd thought. The city seemed to be trying to take control of the situation. Maybe there was hope after all. But then another thought hit him. Was he inside the quarantine zone? Was anyone going to come to save him? Was there a thousand of those things just around the corner waiting for him to step outside?

"The umbrella forces are not saying anything to us John. From what we understand the city is still under quarantine and that is being enforced with extreme severity from what several witnesses have told us. Now people have been coming here all day John and those running the centre and attempting to do a screening process to see if anyone is infected and are trying to isolate any individuals who show symptoms of the virus."

"How is that screening process going Tracy?" Said a new male voice, much clearer than the reporters. It must have been the anchor in the studio. "Are people being co-operative through the screening processes?"

"Some of them are John but a lot of them are frightened." Said Tracy. "A lot of the people who are coming in are families who don't want to be separated from their partners, or even their children at this time of panic."

Suddenly the reporter jumped in surprise as a gunshot sounded close by. The camera turned to the side showing one of the umbrella guards struggling with a man. As the camera watched the person managed to bite into the guard's arm, causing him to scream. Another figure stepped in front of the camera, obscuring it. The image tiled up to see the masked face of an Umbrella guard looking down at the camera.

"Turn that damn camera off!" He said. He raised his gloved hand to cover the cameras lens as two gunshots echoed out behind him.

The image quickly cut to a man at a news desk. David guessed he was the anchor he had heard earlier. He looked exhausted. His tie was gone and his shirt was buttoned down. Any jacket he may once have been wearing was discarded. It took him a second to realise that the broadcast was now back on him.

"Uh..." He said slowly," Thank you Tracy we'll come back to you later. We'll now, run through the summary of the events unfolding in Raccoon City for those who have just joined us. Based on a statement issued earlier from the Raccoon Police Department, a previously undiscovered virus is spreading through the city. The virus is highly contagious and causes the infected to, act aggressively and without warning. It is highly advised not to approach any infected individuals and if you know someone who is infected it is strongly recommended that they are isolated immediately.

"Symptoms of the virus include, but are not limited to, a high fever, vomiting, hallucination, itching or inflamed or infected areas and loss of strength or feeling weak. As stated before anyone exhibiting these symptoms should be isolated immediately and avoided at all costs. The virus is highly contagious and is passed through fluided contact or through bites from the infected.

"Raccoon City itself is under a state of quarantine with all city limits being sealed off. It is warned that attempting to cross the limits without permission will be met with lethal force. Several other areas of the city have been quarantined in order to try and contain the worst of the contagion. Several evacuation zones have been set up in unquarantined areas of the city and it is adivsed that if you are worried about events or your safety you should head to one of these safe zones. Anyone inside the quarantine zone who is looking for shelter it is advised that they head to the Raccoon General Hospital where a safe zone has been established. The umbrella corporation has sent in several armed guards to help strengthen the safe zones, however we do not know in what capacity the Umbrella Corporation is operating in."

The news anchor then went on to read out a list of places that had been designated as safe zones. A map of the city showed up on the screen showing where they were and what areas were quarantined. A red line was showing the area of the city that had been designated a no go zone, and sure enough, David saw that he was right in the middle.

"Ugh, fuck." He said as he stepped forward and turned the TV off. A lot had happened in the last six hours. The city was now quarantined and Umbrella seemed to be calling the shots. But why were they? What did they have to do about it? Where was the mayor?

At least the report had yielded some new information about the creatures roaming around outside. David already knew they were dead, but the news seemed to be keeping that bit under wraps, mostly because it would probably cause panic in an already out of control city. But now he knew how it was spread. Through bites. Granted David hadn't let any of them get that close and wasn't planning on letting it happen any time soon, but it was something.

The city was taking control, at least it seemed that way. Maybe this wasn't happening everywhere. Maybe there was still hope. But he still had to get to safety. The anchor had said to go to the hospital. He recalled from memory that the hospital wasn't too far away. Perhaps a mile or two tops. But with those things out there walking the streets what would normally be a fifteen to twenty minute journey could now take hours, or get him killed if he wasn't careful.

Still, he figured he had to try. As long as he kept his head down he could make it. Sighing, he headed to the door. He just hoped the hospital wasn't already overrun by the time he got there.

XXX

George awoke to the sound of movement. The on call room was dark with just a lamp from the other side lighting it. His eyes adjusted to the dimness. In it he saw a woman with long blonde hair sitting down on the bed. She wore a grey uniform he seemed to recognise. As he looked she started to bury her face in her hands.

"Hey," George said sitting up, only now realising that he was constrained by the sheets of the bed. It was odd, he remembered just lying down on top of the bed when he had come in earlier.

"Hi." The woman said turning to him. George reached down, trying to free himself from the blankets. "Yeah, that was me sorry. I just figured you looked cold so."

"No it's fine, thanks." George said as he peeled back the blankets and rose from the bed. He looked at the woman sitting on the bed opposite him. He started to remember her as the waitress who had served him in J's the night before. The time seemed so long ago now. She was still wearing the outfit she had worn to serve him.

"You were at J's last night weren't you?" He said.

"Oh yes that's right." She said, her eyes sparkling with recognition. "I remember you. Double scotch right?"

"Yeah," George said, recalling the memory. He also recalled the circumstances that brought him to J's that night. The memory of everything that had happened with Katherine came flooding back to him. Their argument, her leaving him. And then him finding her dead at her sisters and how she come back as one of them. Was she still there? Or was she out there in the city somewhere, hunting for him. To make him pay.

"Are you okay?" The woman asked, noticing George's expression.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said. His face must have betrayed his emotions. "Rough night."

"Yeah," the woman said looking to the floor. "That's a word for it."

"Sorry," George said, regaining his composure. "I'm George. I'm uh, I'm a doctor here."

"Oh right." The woman said. "I'm Cindy. I was helping out but Dr. Hursh said I'd been up for too long and he sent me in here."

"Is Dr. Hursh still up?" George asked. He wouldn't have put it past him if he was. Hursh was a workaholic to the core. But what he had said to George earlier had been true. They needed to be focussed if they were going to deal with this crisis.

"Yeah," Cindy said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm amazed at how he can still be going. I think he's probably still running on adrenaline. Like I was. I didn't even notice how tired I was until I sat down." She yawned, raising a slender hand to her mouth.

"Well I won't keep you up any longer." George said, "I should get back out there anyway. They probably need me now. Maybe I can convince Hursh to get some sleep."

"Good luck." said Cindy. "It's pretty crazy out there."

"What's happening?" asked George, his brow furrowing.

"Well we were told from the police station that it's a virus that spreads through bites," she said, "so we started trying to quarantine those who were infected, and that didn't really go down well."

"I can imagine." George said. Trying to isolate a lot of scared people would most likely cause problems. They would be scared, and someone saying they were infected would be like giving them a death sentence that was out of their control.

"And the city's been quarantined, so no one can leave." She said, "The people are starting to worry. But I guess I haven't had much time to. I've been running around most of the day trying to help." He noticed the tired features of her face, and felt guilty himself for having slept for most of the day. They had both likely been up all night and this was probably the first chance she had had to sleep since the first attack began at J's all those hours ago.

"I'm sure you've done more than enough to help." George said, "But you should get some rest. I'm sure we can hold everything together."

"Great." She said and was already starting to lie down on the bed as George turned and opened the door. Closing it behind him he found the hospital he now stepped into was not the same one he had entered six hours ago.

The first thing that greeted him was the silence. Although he was up on the fourth floor it wasn't natural for it to be this silent. Even at night. A man sat slumped on the wall less than five feet away from him. For a second George thought he was another one of the infected, until he heard a light snoring coming from him and noticed a slight rising and falling of his chest. He was alive. For now at least.

Passing the man he found more people sleeping around the corner. Some had propped themselves up against the walls, but some others just lay on the floor, fast asleep. They had dropped where they stood. One man looked up as George passed, but if he thought anything he didn't let on. He just watched him as he continued down the hall. The hospital didn't even look like an evacuation centre anymore. It was now more like a refugee centre in some war torn country.

It was strange how quickly everyone had just come to deal with it. Able to crash down on the floor and sleep where they had stood. He knew from experience that some people adapted to crisis well. Others unfortunately didn't.,whether through fear or a strong enough desire not to accept what was happening in front of them.

As he approached the T-junction in the hall someone ran past him quickly. Another followed, and then another. George picked up the pace as he heard voices rising from further around the corner. Hurrying around he saw a group of people crowded around something in one of the rooms. Hearing the ominous beeping of a heart monitor as he started to run towards it he knew what was happening. The person on the bed was crashing.

Running in he looked down to see three people, all civilians, holding down a patient who seemed to be having a seizure on the bed. One of the civilians he noticed was the young Japanese girl he had seen earlier when he had arrived. He wondered if she had gotten any sleep. A young doctor was stood apart from them, drawing fluid into a syringe. George recognised him as one of the new residents, but couldn't recall his name.

"What's going on?" George asked, even though as he said it he knew he had a fair idea.

"The patient was admitted to intensive care after he was found unconscious on the first floor." Said the resident, now moving to inject the seizing man in the arm. "A quick physical of him showed that he had a bite mark on his lower back. He's been unconscious for about half an hour."

The resident withdrew the syringe and reached for a set of chest panels next to the patient, who if anything seemed to reacting worse to the injection he had just been given.

"Don't bother with that." Said a voice from behind them. George turned to see an officer standing in the doorway. He had a certain aura of command about him. Behind him stood Hursh. Deep circles had begun to form under his eyes from lack of sleep. The officer stepped forward towards the bed. "There's only one way to deal with this." From his hip he withdrew a pistol and aimed it at the man on the bed.

"No!"

The cry came from one of the civilians who had been holding the man down. As George looked she reached out and grabbed the officer's arm, forcing it down. "No please!" She said, "Please!" The man on the bed had now stopped moving and was lying in a state George had seen many times before. The flat beep of the heart rate monitor only seemed to confirm this. He was dead.

"You know what's going to happen next." The officer said to the woman, who George surmised by her age must have been the man's daughter. "Are you willing to risk getting everyone here killed?"

"Please..." Was all she could seem to be able to muster in response. George had seen the look many times in the past. It was the look of a family member who couldn't let go. The kind of person who would keep their brain dead loved one on a breathing apparatus for years if it meant he was alive, even if he was unable to hear or know anything.

What happened next seemed to reprieve her for her loving duty. One the bed in front of them the man opened his eyes. It took a second for anyone to register that it had happened, and in that time he was able to raise his head up to look at them. A small moan of escaping breath left his mouth.

Even though he had first seen these things several hours ago, and had been fleeing from them ever since, the sight of one of them on the bed in front of him seemed to strike him harder than it had when the first one had shambled into J's. It meant it was still happening. It was still _real._ It hadn't just been some crazy dream that he could wake up from. The nightmare creatures from the night before had shambled through into the day. Nothing had changed. They were still coming. And they were still hungry.

The sight of her reanimated father seemed to have the desired effect on the young woman that the officer wished for. She stepped away, her eyes wide with horror, as the officer raised his firearm and blew a hole in the creature's head. She didn't say anything, she just continued to stare, eyes wide. George wondered if she would ever recover from the trauma she had just witnessed.

"That's how you get them." The officer said, "You have to shoot them in the head. Or remove it." He looked around the group that had gathered. "There's no time to be civil with these things." With that he turned and walked from the room. George met Hursh's eyes at the door. They seemed to show a regretful recognition. That this was the way things were now, and they had to deal with it. Hursh motioned with his head for George to follow as he turned and walked from the room.

"Did you get much sleep?" He asked as George caught up to walk beside him.

"I got enough" George replied. He still felt guilty about sleeping for so long while this hell was going on around him.

"Well, there's been a couple of changes of developments." Hursh said as the continued to walk. "The R.P.D. Has sent a few extra hands here and they seem to be keeping the civilians in check, for now at least. From what I've heard the city's managed to contain the infection and evacuation centres are trying to isolate the infected individuals among them. But I don't know how long they'll hold once they start to turn."

"How are we doing?" George asked, already fearful of the answer.

"Some people are being co-operative." Hursh said, "Others not so much. These people are scared. They're frightened and the last thing they want to do is be locked in a room with a bunch of other people who might end up killing them."

"I guess," George said, "It's not easy."

"We don't have a choice anymore." Hursh said.

"What do you mean." Asked George.

"Look," Hursh stopped and turned to George. "The people aren't co-operating, at least not enough of them are. They're happy for anyone else to be put into quarantine but when it comes to them and their family they won't hear of it. The police are starting to get desperate. I don't know what they're going to do but it won't be good."

Hursh looked George dead in the eyes as he continued, and George knew that what they were facing was worse than the walking dead. They were facing the failure of humanity. And that would be the downfall of all.

"Ultimately it doesn't matter about supplies or whether or not they run out in 18 hours or not. If people don't start co-operating we'll be dead by midnight." Hursh sighed and continued down the hall. George stood where he had left him, in silent contemplation. He wondered what they're chances of even making it that long were.

_A/N: What's this? Am I back? It seems that way. To be honest I thought long and hard about whether to continue with this story. It's not because I don't have a love for it, or muse to write it. It's the fact that I'm at college and now trying to think about how to get my name out there and gain some semblance of a career. And since there's not much hope for this work to get published, I wondered if I should continue doing it. But the ultimate deciding factor was basically you, the readers. I feel I owe it you to continue with this story. You've kept with it so far and a lot of people wouldn't have that. So, I figure I owe it to you guys to finish this. I don't know when I will, I can't even guarantee I'll get another update up quick. But, I am to finish this. So I will. See ya next chapter._

_P.S. Hope the use of the 'C' word didn't offend anyone. It just seemed fitting for the dream._


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